What The Hell Is Happening To My Life Main Story
by rachie.ree08794
Summary: DISCONTINUED! PM ME IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN CONTINUING THE STORY!SasukexOC, KakashixOC, NarutoxOC, OCxOC - What happens when four friends wake up the morning after New Year's eve to find that they're in Naruto's World, and that 3 out of 4 of them have ears and tails of a wolf, tiger and cheetah?
1. Chapter 1

What the Hell is Happening to My Life????

CHAPTER 1

Fireworks. That was how my life started to turn upside down. My family had decided to take a holiday after Christmas to the coast, a week before New Year's. It was New Year's Eve now, and I was walking, hopping, jumping and stepping along the rocks, being careful to avoid the dark holes that I knew led to possible severe injury or death. Those dark pools hid the viscously churning water behind the shadows.

I stood on the edge near one such hole, big enough for me to fit through and easily leave room for another person, innocently watching the midnight fireworks, when a particularly large wave crashed down onto the rocks. I covered my face with my arms as it crashed down, and I made the idiotic mistake of stepping into the black hole in front of me.

I started to scream, but I hit my head on a rock and lost consciousness. The last thing I saw before I lost myself in the darkness of an induced sleep was a lot of……trees…..and grass, then I knew nothing else……

~Switch of view: Naruto~

"Aw man, I'm exhausted!" I exclaimed as we were travelling home to Konoha through the forest. Then I suddenly caught a glimpse of something sparkling through the trees. I stopped running and looked at the pin prick of light coming off of some surface. Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi stopped a little ahead of me and looked at me strangely.

"Guys, there's something catching the sunlight through there, see?" I pointed as the others looked in the direction of my finger. All of their eyes widened in surprise, and we all decided to check it out. What we saw when we got to the thing surprised us all.

Lying in the grass like they had fallen asleep there was a girl of our age, only she was slightly different. She had a tigers tail poked out of her jeans and a pair of tiger's ears poking out through her hair. She was wearing a simple t-shirt and a pair of white washed jean-shorts that stopped at her mid-thigh. The thing I had seen that was catching the sun was an odd shaped ring on her right hand on her middle finger.

We all looked at her curiously, and I looked around for a bag she might have had with her and found a red satchel and a black handbag with buckles all over it. The handbag also had a couple of badges on it and a lot of key chains. We all looked at her curiously….well, except for Kakashi-sensei. He was looking at her in more of a studying and suspicious manor, like we should still be on our guard while she's unconscious.

"What should we do sensei? We can't just leave her here." I asked. Sasuke nodded his head in agreement.

"Naruto is right, Kakashi-sensei, we need to do something. We could take her to the village to see if anything is wrong with her."

Sakura was looking put out that Sasuke was thinking more about the strange girl than her. She pouted and glowered at the unconscious girl. Then she glared at her and turned to Kakashi-sensei.

"But sensei….." She whined. "We can't even be sure if she's on our side, and she's prettier than me…..!" She pointed an accusatory finger at the girl(Sorry to those of you who like Sakura, but I don't like her, so deal with it =P) Sasuke and I both glared at Sakura, silently telling her to shut up. I can't believe I even liked her when we were 12. Kakashi sighed, as if he were in pain, but then we all saw the girl twitch…..

~Switch View: Back to you~

"But sensei….." Why did that whining voice sound familiar. I opened my eyes to slits and saw gold-yellow hair, raven black hair, silver hair, and bubblegum pink hair. That was completely _not_ strange, note the sarcasm people. I twitched as the whining voice spoke up again.

"We can't even be sure if she's on our side, and she's prettier than me……!" She pointed at me and glowered, then glared. I had had enough of this. I twitched again, and all of them stood completely still.

I then realised I was actually in _pain_ and groaned, reaching a hand up to rub the back of my head as I rolled onto my hands and knees. I found a rather large bump on my head.

"Owwwwww…….and that's what I get for falling off of those…..rocks….?" I opened my eyes to see that I was kneeling on soft grass instead of rocks. I looked around to see that I was in a clearing, completely surrounded by trees and bushes.

"What the hell????" I stood up quickly, which was a bad idea, because I suddenly became very dizzy and fell back to my knees again. I groaned and rubbed my dizzy and sore head. I then looked around again to see the forest instead of my motel room or the beach.

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore……" I murmured as I looked around again and saw my red satchel and my black handbag……huh? How in the hell did they get here? Since I could barely stand I crawled over to them and knelt in front of them and looked through my satchel first.

I had spare changes of clothes, underwear, lady essentials in a toilet bag, as well as other necessities. I also had my CD's, including the twilight soundtrack and Nickelback's latest album, Dark Horse. My notebook with all my drawings and pencil case attached to it was in there. My laptop was in there too, so were the charger and spare battery for it. My digital camera was in there too, in its bag with a couple spare CF cards, and a pack of batteries and a battery charger, as well as the cable to connect it to my laptop. There was also a broadband card in there, for wireless internet, and my iPod cord, with a power point adapter. And, lo-and-behold, my alarm clock iPod dock, which was half as big as my bag, and twice as wide, was in there too.

I then looked in my handbag to see everything I had in there last. My wallet, which now had some sort of different currency in it, and plenty of it. The script on the money was Japanese and from what I could read on the notes in my wallet, I had about 300'000 ryou, whatever that was, but I knew it was some sort of Japanese currency. Hang on though, don't the Japanese call their currency yen?

I shook my head and looked to see that my school ID and my savings card were still there, as well as my Cinebuzz card and my Boost juice bars Vibe card, as well as all the other store cards I had, one of them being my precious Sanity music Pulse card. I sighed in confusion and kept going through my handbag. My card wallet was there, as well as my iPod, a 4th generation silver nano, my phone, a crap MotoRAZR which really needed to be replaced. My Nintendo DS was in there, protective case and all, with all my games.

And my small tub of lip butter from The Body Shop was in there too. I opened that up and smeared some on my lips and noticed that it smelled stronger than it did yesterday. I screwed the lid shut, a confused look planted on my features as I leant against a tree and shakily stood up.

I sighed and leaned my forehead against the tree.

"How did all this happen? The last thing I remember was……my family, ahead of me watching the New Year's fireworks on the beach, and I was behind them, walking along the rocks……" I trailed off as it all came back to me, covering my face to protect me from the cold water, stepping forward into the dark abyss between the rocks, hitting my head and falling unconscious as I caught a glimpse of trees and grass.

I sighed yet again, and looked down at my hands, gasping when I saw that they looked like something out of one of my favourite anime shows. I looked down to see that the rest of my body was the same, and that there was something writhing around behind me.

I spun in circles, trying to get a look at it as it curled around my waist. I looked down to see it was a tiger's tail wrapped around my waist. I willed it to unravel and it did, I looked down at my bum to see that it was poking out of my jeans, where my tail bone was. I looked around yet again and found a stream near me. I shakily walked over to it and gasped when I saw my reflection.

Yes, my green eyes were staring back at me, yes, my black hair was still there, but everything about me had gone anime style, and I now had a pair of fuzzy tiger ears poking out of my hair. I sat back in shock, and groaned again as another wave of pain overcame me.

I looked over my body again and found out that I had possibly hair line fractured my right arm, and that I had also twisted my left knee. I stood again, favouring my left knee by hopping a little on my right, and hobbled back over to my satchel and grabbed up one of my shirts, one of my really old shirts, and, using my teeth and good arm, I ripped the shirt down one of the seams, wincing as I moved my broken arm into a sling position and tied the now ripped shirt around my arm and neck.

I winced and groaned again as I slowly sank to the ground. I breathed in loudly, trying to block out the pain as I shut my eyes tight. I breathed out and opened them, the breath coming out in a hiss when I moved my leg.

"What am I gonna do now? I'm in an unknown forest, with no fudging idea where I am. The last thing I remember before knocking my head was that I was falling between some rocks at the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, while I was on holidays with my family. I have no _idea_ how much time has passed since then, for all I know they could think I'm dead, and, to put the cherry on top, I HAVE A FREAKING PAIR OF EARS AND A BLOODY FUDGING TAIL!!!!"

I punched the tree weakly with my good arm, wincing when it jostled my bad arm. I slumped to the ground, as tears fell from my eyes. I brought my good leg up to my chest and buried my face in it.

"What the hell is going on with my life?" I mumbled into my knee. I heard something shift and looked up a little to see four pairs of sandal covered feet, like my own were now. I looked up further and came face-to-face-to-face-to-face-to-face with the main characters from my all time favourite anime show, Naruto.

That's right, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, and Sakura Haruno were all standing in front of me, looking at me with curiosity and slight suspicion, well, slight from Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi, Sakura had complete suspicion in her eyes and was glaring at me. I groaned and buried my head in my knee again.

"Great, just peachy, now I'm going insane and seeing characters from my favourite anime show? That is so completely normal everyday life Artemis, completely normal." I muttered, getting to my feet again, but they heard me. Kakashi stepped forward and looked at me suspiciously.

"What do you mean by 'favourite anime show'?" He asked, continuing to look at me, just like they all did. I sighed and rubbed my temples. I sat down and motioned for them to do the same. I reached over for my handbag and pulled my iPod and headphones out as I started explaining.

"Okay, first off, I'm from an entirely different earth, that has different continents, countries, and states within those continents and countries. I'm from the largest country and smallest continent, Australia. I live in a state called Queensland, in a small town. Where I'm from, there's a popular TV anime show about you guys called Naruto, and yes, I am aware that the blonde haired guy is Naruto Uzumaki, I watch Naruto like it's a religion almost." Naruto had perked up and started pointing to himself and raising his hand when I said his name.

I pulled my iPod dock out and put my iPod into it, turned it on, and looked through the episodes of the entire first series on my iPod until I came to the first episode. Since it was a fabulous iPod nano 4th gen, I turned the dock on its side and motioned for them to come closer.

"This was the first ever episode in the series." I stated as I pushed the play button and the episode started. I sat back as I had watched it so many times I knew it off by heart as Team Kakashi stared in awe at their younger selves in the first episode of their own show. When it had finished and they all looked back at me in shock, I had my eyes closed, my arms and legs crossed gingerly, and I was nodding at them before opening my eyes.

"You believe me yet? Me and my three friends, Alyss, Viva, and Zeala all love watching your show back in our world." Kakashi looked confused. As did Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura was glaring suspiciously at me.

"Prove it then, tell us what you know about us." I returned her glare with my own harsh glare, she cowered as I began.

"Name: Naruto Uzumaki, Current Age: 16, From: Konohagakure, The Village Hidden in The Leaves, Specialty: Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, Parents: Minato Namikaze, The Fourth Hokage of Konoha and (insert Naruto's Mum's name) Uzumaki." Naruto looked at me in complete shock and gave me a small nod to prove that it was all true. I turned to Sasuke next.

"Name: Sasuke Uchiha, Current Age:16, From: Konohagakure, The Village Hidden in The Leaves, Specialty: Sharingan, your family's Kekkei Genkai, Parents and family are deceased, they were murdered by Itachi Uchiha, Your older brother whom you killed sometime last year." Sasuke gave a small nod showing that it was true. I turned to Kakashi next.

"Name: Kakashi Hatake, Current age: 26, From: Konohagakure, The Village Hidden in The Leaves, Specialty: Sharingan and most known jutsu, you've copied nearly all jutsu except the forbidden jutsus, and some of the First Hokage's Earth style techniques." Kakashi nodded like Sasuke did and I turned to Sakura with a glare. She gulped when I glared.

"Name: Sakura Haruno, Current Age: 16, From: Konohagakure, The Village Hidden in The Leaves, Specialty: None, you're weak as anything and can still barely do anything after Lady Tsunade, The Fifth Hokage of Konoha's teachings." Sakura sulked in a corner of the clearing as I gave a bow to an invisible audience.

"Thank you, thank you." I grinned as Naruto started laughing. Kakashi chuckled and even Sasuke cracked a smile. Kakashi turned to me, a serious look now on his face.

"We need to take you to Konoha hospital soon though. You look pretty battered and bruised." I nodded and rubbed the shoulder of my arm that was in a sling and winced as my arm was jostled.

"Yeah, I think I've hairline fractured my arm, as far as I can tell. I have a lump on my head, and I've twisted my knee." I gingerly returned my ass to the ground and packed up my iPod and speaker dock. Naruto kindly took my bags and Sasuke, much to Sakura's displeasure and dismay, lifted me into his arms, bridal style, being careful not to jostle my sore knee as they all started walking back to the village.

After a while on the road, I gasped and moved around in Sasuke's arms.

"What is it?" He asked, setting me down gently as I started hobbling away in one direction away from the dirt track we were walking on. I hobbled/ran to where I saw what I had seen to find three girls, all, except one, with ears and tails, piled on top of one another in a heap, and their bags were the same. They were all conscious and didn't seem to have any bodily damage. I recognised them as soon as I saw their hairstyles.

"No way! Aly, Viv, Z, that you guys????" They all groaned and rolled off of each other.

"Well, that was a rather unpleasant landing." Alyss groaned, her shoulder length onyx black hair shining in the sun and her bright emerald coloured eyes doing the same. You would swear that Alyss and I looked exactly the same, but my jet black hair was darker in contrast to Alyss' hair and her eyes were much brighter than mine were.

"Whatever you just said, I completely and utterly agree with you Aly." Viva murmured as she rolled onto her hands and knees, her brown/black hair falling around her eyes. And last but not least, Zeala remained spread eagle on the ground, her long black, red streaked hair flaring under her body and coming to a layered finish at her butt.

"Zeala?" I asked, crouching down beside her head and poking her in the stomach. She twitched when I did that and muttered, "Zeala is currently unavailable, please give her 3 months to hibernate before poking her again."

I giggled as she opened her eyes and grinned at me. She sat up and hugged me as I returned the hug one armed, careful not to jostle my arm. I then did the same with Alyss and Viva. By the time they were all up and had their bags ready, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi had found us.

Their jaws dropped in shock and I grinned at them.

"Guys, you'll catch flies if you don't close your mouths." I pushed Aly's, Viv's and Z's jaws back up as they continued to stare at Team Kakashi.

"Okay, introduction time." I grinned and grabbed Alyss by the hand and pulled her gently forward.

"Okay, Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, Sakura, this, is one of the best friends you can ever have, Alyss Mizuko. Alyss, this is Team Kakashi." Alyss smiled a little and gave a small wave. Then I pulled Viva forward.

"This is Viva Shiroi, the youngest but possibly loudest motor-mouth you'll ever meet." Viva blinked then looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Hey! You're gonna regret that Art!" I giggled then pulled Zeala forward.

"And this princess of darkness and completely awesome friend is Zeala Isolde." Zeala smiled a little and then grabbed a hair tie from her wrist and pulled her butt length hair up into a messy pony tail. Sakura glared at Alyss when Alyss looked at her curiously, and Alyss, startled, reeled back, and looked apologetically at Sakura.

"I'm sorry, but if I've offended you in any way, would you _please_ explain what it is that I've done?" Alyss asked as she stood her ground. Sakura looked taken aback for a moment, but then her glare hardened again.

"Simple. You're all friends with that tiger eared freak in front of us!" Sakura pointed an accusatory finger at me as I gasped in outrage and shock. How dare she? I've never felt so offended in my life. Maybe it's because it's coming from a pink haired, obsessed fangirl.

I glared harshly at her, as did my friends and Naruto and Sasuke.

"Sakura! What has gotten into you?" Naruto asked as we continued to glare at each other.

"Apart from the fact that we're taking four possibly untrustworthy freaks back to Konoha?" She asked Naruto sarcastically. Naruto glared at Sakura.

"Have you forgotten that _I'm_ one of those _freaks_ too, Sakura? I have a _demon_ inside me. Artemis and her friends are lucky if they just have the ears and tail of a tiger, cheetah and a wolf. You should be feeling lucky you don't have to share your mind with another, more twisted demon animals, or that you don't have any animal ears or tails on your body Sakura."

Sakura looked at the ground in shame as Sasuke continued. "Naruto's right, Sakura, and besides, apart from their new found appendages, they're just as human as we are, and that _includes_ Naruto." Sakura looked up, shame in her eyes.

"But-"She began.

"Don't say a word Sakura. Right now I'm disappointed and ashamed that you're my student. At this rate I'll be sending you back to the academy. You will apologise to the girls and if you can't learn to accept them, then get used to them, because it looks like they'll be here for a while yet."

Sakura nodded and dropped her head, looking at the ground in shame. Then Kakashi turned to us and looked over my friends. He nodded to himself, as if confirming something.

"Alright, do you three feel any pain anywhere at all?" Alyss, Viva and Zeala shook their heads simultaneously. I smiled at how perfectly in sync we could all be without even trying.

"Alright then, it seems that Artemis is the only one that needs to be carried then."

Alyss, Viva and Zeala all looked at me. Then Viva winked at me while Alyss and Zeala broke out into identical grins. I mock glared at them all as Sasuke picked me up again and mouthed 'don't even _dare_ think I like being carried by him'. They all grinned and Viva mouthed 'sure'. I sighed and shook my head as we all walked towards Konoha.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

After a long and, on my part, pretty uncomfortable walk because of me having to be carried, we finally stopped outside the gates of Konoha. Alyss, Viva, Zeala and I all looked up in surprise. We all blinked simultaneously and shook our heads.

"Well, I never expected it to be _that_ big." We all said in unison. Team Kakashi looked at us shocked and I grinned before explaining.

"Don't worry about it, we're so close we often say the same things at the same time, in fact, you could say it's become a habit of ours." Team Kakashi nodded, well, except for Sakura, and we proceeded through the gates until the Jounin on guard duty stopped us.

"I'm sorry Kakashi, but no identification that you're from this village, no entry." Kakashi looked at the obviously new Jounin seriously and stated, "We found them unconscious outside of the village. They'll be needing urgent medical attention."

The guard stuttered, hesitated, then nodded, showing that we could pass through. The gates opened and when we stepped inside, my friends and I were once again surprised. Konoha was so much bigger up close than on the TV screen. Team Kakashi took us to Konoha Hospital, where we were all put into a room and told to wait by one of the nurses as she carefully removed my makeshift sling from my arm. I hissed in pain as she slid her hand and the ruined shirt down my arm, a few tears building at the corners of my eyes.

"FuuuuuUuuck……" I groaned through the pain, loud enough for everyone to hear. They all looked at me as the rest of my sling was pain stakingly removed after what felt like forever. After the nurse had finally removed my sling, I collapsed back into the pillows on the bed, panting a little.

"Are…..you okay, Artemis?" Naruto asked as I kept panting a bit, a single tear sliding down my cheek. I cracked my eyes open and looked at him, then everyone else in the room. I closed my eyes again and hissed as another wave of pain overcame me.

"Hell……no….." I breathed, hissing again as yet another wave of pain wreaked havoc through my body. Alyss looked at me in sympathy, then looked up at Team Kakashi.

"This is the first time Artemis has ever so much as broken a limb. She's never broken anything before now, only dislocated her knees several times in our world. But that could have changed when she came here. Her knees might just be stronger now, but I can't be sure."

"Well…..Alyss…..the only…..pain coming from…..my knees is from….my twisted knee….." I groaned and lay back again as someone came through the door. The someone had blonde hair in two low pony tails and a little purple diamond on her forehead, and appeared to be in her 20's or 30's.

"Alright, what's wrong with you?" Lady Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage asked as I rode through another wave of pain. I hissed again and whimpered a little. Alyss came over and rested a hand on my good arm, Viva was gently rubbing my temples, and Zeala was being Zeala, standing in a corner of the room like Sasuke, not really trusting anyone outside of our group in this room at the moment.

"Broken right arm…….twisted left knee……lump on my head….." I groaned out. Tsunade nodded and proceeded to heal my wounds. After it was over, I breathed out heavily and grinned a little.

"Thank you Lady Hokage." My friends and I said in unison. Tsunade tossed us all a small grin then left the room. I grinned again, and my friends had a little celebration.

"Art's all riiiight, Art's all riiiiight!" Viva and Alyss cheered. Zeala grinned at their antics like I did before I said, "you guys, we're in a hospital." Aly and Viv stopped their cheering.

"So?" Viva asked while I grinned at them.

"So," Zeala began. "there are other people in the building who want some sleep, numbskulls." She gave the both of them noogies and they tried blowing their hair off of their faces unsuccessfully. I laughed at the scene, then Viva turned to me, an evil grin on her face. I gulped.

"You know," She began. "I did mean it when I said you were going to regret it." Her sing song tone half told me otherwise. I gulped again as she pounced on me and started tickling my sides, where I was, unfortunately, most ticklish, and of course I started to laugh really hard, and squeal a bit until Viva was pried off of me. I panted hard as Viva exclaimed in her crazy voice, "You can't escape my tickle torture, I'll get you next time, mwah hahahahahaaaaa *cough, cough*" I laughed again. Alyss laughed as well as Team Kakashi, and even Sasuke smiled. Zeala grinned and ruffled Viva's hair again.

"Don't use the evil laugh for a while, Viv, it's starting to get to you." Viva pouted and tried blowing the hair off of her face again. Just then Tsunade came back into the room. We all looked at her as she pulled out four new looking headbands, all black.

"Now, I know you new girls are probably going to be staying for a while, and Kakashi told me about where you girls are from. Now, you have two options while you live here. You can either a) Train you butts off for the next few days and become ninja, more specifically Chunnin. Or b) you can be a boring citizen of Konoha who never gets to do anything fun."

We looked at eachother, then Tsunade. Tsunade looked back at us. Oh hell was I determined to become a ninja. I sat up then got up out of the hospital bed and stared Tsunade down. We had a staring contest for a while until I stood tall and proud and stated, "I, Artemis Ryans, vow to become a Kunoichi of Konoha."

Zeala pushed away from her corner and stood beside me, and, being half a foot taller than me, made me feel like a midget as she too, stood tall and proud and stated, "I, Zeala Isolde, vow to become a Kunoichi of Konoha."

Alyss stood on my other side and looked at Tsunade with determination in her eyes. "I, Alyss Mizuko, vow to become a Kunoichi of Konoha."

Viv stood beside Alyss and grinned at us all as we grinned at return. Then she met Tsunade's gaze. "I, Viva Shiroi, vow to become a Kunoichi of Konoha." Tsunade nodded then smiled at all of us.

"Then, Artemis Ryans, Zeala Isolde, Alyss Mizuko, Viva Shiroi, you will be trained by Team Kakashi until they think that you're ready to become Chunnin of Konoha. Zeala, for now, you and Viva will both be trained by Kakashi, Alyss, you will be trained by Naruto, and Artemis, you will be trained by….."We all looked at her in anticipation as she stated the name of the person I wanted to be trained by the least.

"Sasuke." She finished. I groaned mentally as Sasuke looked up, no emotion showing in his eyes, but I could tell he was thinking the same as me, 'Why the hell would she put us together?' I nodded as she put the headbands into her jacket pocket.

"When you have proved to me that you can all be successful Kunoichi, I will present you with these headbands, but for now, train hard, work hard, and you should be fine. You'll switch senseis a few times until they deem you ready."

We nodded, and, just when we thought she's stay quiet, Sakura piped up in her whiny voice.

"Lady Tsunade, how am _I_ supposed to spend time with _my_ Sasuke when he's training _her_?" She pointed at me as I sighed and shook my head, rubbing my temples to stop the oncoming headache.I then cracked my knuckles and flexed my hands repeatedly, a sure sign to my friends that I was beginning to become pissed off. Naruto, Kakashi, Tsunade and Sasuke looked curiously at my hand movements as my friends stepped back and away from me, their eyes locked on my hands. Sakura didn't even notice as she kept whining.

"And why can't Sasuke train _me_ instead of _her_. That seems _so_ much more logical. And I won't let that _bitch_ steal_ my _Sasuke away from me." I twitched and Zeala, Viva and Alyss gasped and looked at Sakura with anger and slight sympathy, very slight mind you, as my hand movements abruptly stopped and I became rigid.

"What. Did. You. Just. Call. Me?" I growled through gritted teeth, stepping forward, my hands balling into fists. Sakura finally looked down at my hands, but didn't care and looked back up at me and sneered.

"You heard me, _freak_. I called you a _bitch_, because that's _exactly_ what you _are_, or didn't you notice?"

I lost it. I growled furiously as I saw red and brought my left hand back and socked Sakura in her precious nose, following up by a left spin kick to her side. All of Team Kakashi and Tsunade looked surprised, especially Sakura since she didn't see my punch coming, or the force behind both my punch and kick. Sakura fell to the floor with a bloody nose an I crouched down by her head and growled loud enough for everyone to hear, "_Never_, I repeat, _never __**ever**_, call me a bitch, or you might just wake up with worse than a broken nose and bruised ribs in a ditch somewhere."

Alyss, Viva and Zeala nodded as Viva spoke up. "It's true, she did the exact same thing to a really nasty girl in our grade at school, and left her in a ditch about 600 kilometers from town, she transferred schools when she was found and no one in our town has heard from her since then."

Alyss continued. "She called Art a bitch as well, and we were all pissed off, but you, Sakura, had been grinding on Art's nerves since she met you if she lost it so quickly. When she cracks her knuckles and flexes her hands, that means you better back off and shut up because she's getting pissed off."

Zeala kept explaining as Sakura stood up shakily. "And when Art, or Viva even, lose it, they tend to go all out in the erms of 'beating someone up'. Viva's gone as far as breaking someone's leg, Art's given someone two black eyes, a broken nose, and bruised ribs, mind you this is just our human strength, without the help of any chakra or spiritual energies."

Viva piped in, "I also pushed someone down bus stairs and made them quadriplegic for life."

Everyone in the room besides me looked at Viva and asked in surprise, "You did?" Viva just nodded.

Everyone's eyes had widened in surprise, except for Zeala's and Alyss', as they already knew about all of this, and Viv and I didn't even move, well, Viv didn't, I was twitching, repeating in my head 'Mustn't severley injure obsessed Sasuke fangirl, mustn't severley injure Sasuke obsessed fangirl'. Alyss noticed my repetative twitching and laid a hand on my shoulder gently. I stiffened.

"Alright Art, I think you should calm down now. Breathe in slowly, then out. Please Art, stay calm." I breathed out shakily and nodded, but I still twitched a little.

"Screw this," I muttered. "If anyone needs me, I'm off looking for a guitar and a nice, quiet tree to sit in someplace." With that, I sprinted as fast as I could out of the room and down the street until I came to the main market place, where I slowed down and looked around until I found a music store.

I entered the musty store and started perusing the acoustic guitars they had in the store until I found one that I thought was perfect for me. It was a red-wood acoustic guitar, 6-string of course, that came with a tuner, a shoulder strap, a case, a stand, and a pick. It was nice and cheap too, about 600 ryou, which, if this currency is anything like the japanese ye currency, would only be about $6 in Australia.

I paid for my new guitar and packed everything into the case, pulled the case onto my back, then headed out, sprinting towards a park. When I arrived I saw that there was only a few people in the park. A few families having a great time with their dogs, kids playing on a play set, older kids playing fetch with their dogs or playing different kinds of games.

I sighed sadly and ran towards the nearest tree I could climb and scaled it until I came to a branch that was bent kind of like a hammock. I took my guitar off of my back and settled myself into it, tuned my new guitar, took my pick out, and strummed a few notes.

When I was sure it was perfectly tuned, I started to play the guitar piece from one of my favourite songs, 'If Today Was Your Last Day', from Nickelback's new album, 'Dark Horse'

If Today Was Your Last Day-Nickelback

_My best friend gave me, the best advice_

_He said each day's a gift, and not a given right_

_Leave no stone unturned leave your fears behind_

_And try to take the path less travelled by_

_That first step you take is the longest stride_

_If today was your last day_

_And tomorrow was too late_

_Could you say good bye to yesterday_

_Would you live each moment like your last_

_Leave old pictures in the past_

_Donate every dime you had_

_If today was your last day_

_Against the grain should be a way of life_

_What's wort the prize is always worth the fight_

_Every second counts cause there's no second try_

_So live it like you'll never live it twice_

_Don't take the free ride in your own life_

_If today was your last day_

_And tomorrow was too late_

_Could you say good bye to yesterday_

_Would you live each moment like your last_

_Leave old pictures in the past_

_Donate every dime you had_

_Would you call old friends you never see_

_Reminisce old memories_

_Would you forgive you enemies_

_Would you find that one you're dreamin' of_

_Swear up and down to God above_

_That you'd finally fall in love_

_If today was your last day_

_If today was your last day_

_Would you make your mark by mending a broken heart_

_You know it's never too late_

_To shoot for the stars regardless of who you are_

_So do whatever it takes cause you can't rewind a moment in this life_

_Let nothing stand in your way_

_Cause the hands of time are never on your side_

_If today was your last day_

_And tomorrow was too late_

_Could you say good bye to yesterday_

_Would you live each moment like your last_

_Leave old pictures in the past_

_Donate every dime you had_

_Would you call old friends you never see_

_Reminisce old memories_

_Would you forgive you enemies_

_Would you find that one you're dreamin' of_

_Swear up and down to God above_

_That you'd finally fall in love_

_If today was your last day_

I finished strumming the last chords and opened my eyes in surprise when I heard someone clapping. Well, more like people clapping. I looked down out of my tree to see that an audience had gathered.

"Meep. I did _that_ good?" I asked myself as I jumped out of my tree and sat down on a bench while thinking of another song to play. I finally decided on another clean song since there were kids listening as well.

Gotta Be Somebody-Nickelback

_This time I wonder what it feels like_

_To find the one in this life_

_The one we all dream of_

_But dreams just aren't enough_

_So I'll be waiting for the real thing_

_I'll know it by the feeling_

_The moment when we're meeting_

_We'll play out like a scene_

_Straight off the silver screen_

_So I'll be holdin' my breath_

_Right up till the end Until that moment when_

_I find the one that I'll spend forever with_

_Cause nobody wants to be the last one there_

_Everyone wants to feel like someone cares_

_Someone to love with my life in their hands_

_There's gotta be somebody for me like that_

_Cause nobody wants to go it on their own_

_And everyone wants to know they're not alone_

_There's somebody else that feels _

_the same somewhere_

_There's gotta be somebody for me out there_

_Tonight out on the street_

_Out in the moonlight_

_And dammit this fels too right_

_It's just like deja-vu_

_Me standin' here with you_

_So I'll be holdin' my breath_

_Could this be the end_

_Is it that moment when_

_I'll find the one that I'll spend forever with?_

_You can't give up_

_(when you're lookin' for)_

_A diamond in the rough_

_(because you never know)_

_When it shows up_

_(Make sure you're holdin' on)_

_Cause it could be the one_

_The one you're waiting on_

_Cause nobody wants to be the last one there_

_Everyone wants to feel like someone cares_

_Someone to love with my life in their hands_

_There's gotta be somebody for me_

_Nobody wants to go it on their own_

_Everyone wants to know they're not alone_

_Somebody else that feels _

_The same somewhere_

_There's gotta be somebody for me out there_

_Nobody wants to be the last one there_

_(when you're lookin' for)_

_Everyone wants to feel like someone cares_

_(because you never know)_

_Someone to love with my life in their hands_

_(Make sure you're holdin' on)_

_There's gotta be somebody for me out there_

Everyone clapped and cheered as I stood up and bowed my head before disappearing from the park and into a nearby forest, where I relocated myself into a different tree and resumed my strumming.

"You naughty thing, You're rippin' up the dance floor hunny, You naughty woman……" I hummed quietly, strumming the guitar piece for 'Something in Your Mouth', another song by Nickelback from their album 'Dark Horse'. I kept strumming for a while until I felt like I was being watched. I quietly finished my strumming and packed up my guitar, stood up, and stated clearly, "What do you want?"

Sasuke stepped out from the other side of my tree and easily kept his balance using his chakra. He glanced at me, then my guitar, and smirked a little. He crouched on the branch I was sitting on.

"Lady Tsunade said after you left that training starts whenever we wish, by 'we' I mean me, Naruto and Kakashi, being your senseis and all. So, I decided that we're going to start today." I nodded and sighed, standing up and jumped out of the tree(It wasn't a long drop, you were on a low branch)and set my guitar down a few meters away from where we would be training.

"Okay, first, I'm gonna teach you how to use your chakra and how o control it. First, make this handsign," He showed me how to position my hands and I copied his movements before he continued. "then close your eyes. Now, do you see a blue fire?" I nodded. "That's your chakra, now, I want you to focus on your chakra until you can feel it moving throught your chakra stream. You'll know because you'll feel a little stronger when your chakra moves throught your body."

This went on for a while until I had finally gotten control of my chakra, tehn he started teaching me some ninjutsu and genjutsu. He taught me his Phoenix Flower and Fireball jutsus, and the simple Clone Jutsu. He also taught me how to walk up trees. After all of this he led me to a hotspring but didn't stop at the edge. He kept walking until he was walking _on_ the water.

"Alright, what you have to do is-" I cut him off, I'd seen this episode a thousand times.

"Realease a steady flow of chakra from your feet, because water is a moving surface."

Sasuke looked slightly puzzled.

"How did you….?"

"TV shows in my world, you learn a lot from them." I replied, shrugging, then concentrating on sending chakra to my feet and releasing a steady amount of it as I walked towards the hot water. On my first try my feet sunk a little into the water.

"Not enough chakra flow. Try boosting it a little." Sasuke stated. I concentrated and boosted my chakra flow a lttle bit, and that brought my feet out of the water. I looked up at Sasuke and grinned.

"Good, now try walking." I took an unsteady step forward, then another, until I was walking comfortably in circles around Sasuke. I smirked in triumph and came to a stop in front of him.

"So, what comes next sensei?" I asked as I stood in front of him. He crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes as he explained, "That's it for today, tomorrow I'll work on your speed so I can teach you another ninjutsu."

I nodded and picked up my guitar case, noticing that my bags were there as well.

'_Zeala, she must have dropped them off while I was training with Sasuke.'_ I thought as I picked them up as well. After I had my bags, Sasuke and I walked out of the forest and back into Konoha, looking for the rest of the group. We caught up with them walking away from the ramen bar towards Naruto's place.

"Hey Guys! Wait up!" I called as Sasuke and I ran to catch up.

"I don't hear you saying thank you." Zeala said with a smile at me.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks for taking my bag Z." I replied giving her a one armed hug as we walked on.

"So where are you guys staying?"I asked my friends.

"We're staying on the floor at Naruto's place-"Viv said.

"And I'm sleeping on his roof." Zeala said as Viv forgot to mention that.

"You're so weird, Zeala Isolde." I said pulling Z's tail.

"I really would've thought that the name would've tipped you off when you signed the contract of being my friend." I said as I rolled my eyes at her but still smiling.

"Also don't touch the tail, having a sixteen year old that's just discovered their charkra yanking your tail doesn't exactly feel like a playful tug." I said pulling her tail like she'd just pulled mine.

"Like you can talk." She said as she rubbed her backside.

"Feels like you've discovered yours too."

"What can I say? I learnt a lot from those TV shows that my mother deemed idiotic." I said ruffling her hair and jogging to walk with the others as she looked at me with her mouth open. Zeala kept an eye on me making sure I didn't suddenly run up behind her and attack her with any of my new found jutsus. She figured I'd learnt something because Sasuke seemed to her like the type that didn't mess around, and he was.

Then I did it, I cloned and made the clone keep walking as I tackled her. Zeala's eyes widened as she saw her black hair. I landed on top of her but she rolled us over so that I was underneath her.

"You do realise you made a mistake don't you Artemis Ryans?" Z asked as she straddled me.

"My whatever do you mean Zeala Isolde?" I asked with a smile.

"I mean you shouldn't mess with someone bigger than you." She said smiling back as she started tickling me. She knew all the places I was most ticklish and made me laugh and beg for mercy so much that I ended up crying from the lack of air. She smiled, clearly satisfied and jumped up off of me.

"We're not the only ones who've discovered our charkra." She said nodding to Alyss and Viv.

"You think so?" I asked getting up and brushing myself off.

"I don't think so, I know so. I can just feel their charkra signatures and tell if they're active or dominant." Z said shrugging her shoulders.

"Whether they did it on purpose or by accident they've activated it. Just like I did mine. You should be able to tell too if you clear your head a bit and just take in your surroundings." Zeala explained as she looked up at the stars. I don't know how many times I had seen her do that, it's why most people think of Zeala as mysterious and paranoid, but she just looks out for us, and my friends and I know that she's just looking out for us in her own way, because, after all, she's the oldest in our group, being seventeen. Alyss and I are both sixteen, and Viva takes the place of the youngest in our group, being fourteen. We're an odd group, but we couldn't be any closer.

"How can you do that?" I asked incredulously.

"What?" she asked.

"Just clear your head of everything that's happened to us and just think clearly?"I asked. I kept on thinking hard about how I could have ended up here with my best friends in the world with me, it was a really strange phenomenon.

Zeala shrugged. "You know if anything, my head's probably the most crowded but I just focus on one thing at a time not three different things. That's why I've always looked at the stars. They help me sort through everything that's happened." She said not looking at me.

"You guys think I'm crazy but you should try it sometime. Find something that calms you and then just sort things out in your head."

"Right." I said with a nod.

"You think I'm crazy don't you." Zeala asked, looking at me again.

"Hell, if you're crazy then I don't know what I am. You've probably got to be the sanest of us four." I said putting a hand on her shoulder with a smile.

"Thanks, Art." Zeala said, returning my smile wih a small one of her own.

"We're here." Naruto said showing us into his little house.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Naruto's house was messy, but it felt like home away from home to me, and looked almost exactly like what my bedroom first looks like when I get home from boarding school. I looked over to Zeala and saw her smiling and smiled myself. It always made me happy when my friends smiled. To me, it makes the small piece of the world we live on seem that little bit brighter, a slightly happier place amongst all the turmoil happening in our world.

Sasuke tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned around and looked at him.

"I'd better be going now. Meet me at the bridge tomorrow at 8 o'clock, I'll start you on that new jutsu then. Have a light breakfast, I don't want you getting a stomache cramp while I'm making you run laps to get you up to speed." I nodded and waved to him as he walked back outside, closing the door behind him. I then realised what he said and whimpered. Up to speed? Run laps? He was gonna make me run? There was no way in hell I would survive tomorrow, so I did the only thing I could think of to get it out of my system.

"Viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiivvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!! Alllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!! Zeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! Sasuke is gonna make me RUN tomorrow!!!!!!!" I whined like a child, sitting on the ground cross legged with my arms crossed over my chest and my cheeks puffed out in annoyance.

Naruto, Alyss, Viva and Zeala all started laughing while I kept sulking and then worked out their sleeping arrangements. Zeala would be on the roof like she almost always did, Alyss and Viva would claim floor and couch space in the living room, and since I was the most injured out of the group, Naruto allowed me to claim the spare bedroom.

Zeala had already disappeared onto the roof, and Viva and Alyss had turned Naruto's living room into a sleepover room, everything seriously looked so comfortable in there. I had put my bags in the spare room and was talking with Viva about what happened with my training today when Alyss got up with another blanket and pillow for Zeala.

"Hey Zeala, do you still want a blanket and pillow?" She asked out of the window looking up at where Zeala was.

"Yes please." Came Zeala's reply as Alyss passed then through the window and up to her.I checked the time on Naruto's clock and reset my watch so I could keep track of the time. It was 9:45 and I was beat after a long day, so I decided to hit the sack.

"Goodnight everyone!" I called loud enough for Zeala to hear before disappearing into the spare room and falling onto the bed, not bothering to take my clothes off, before I fell into a deep sleep……

~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~

I awoke to sounds coming from the kitchen, and smells…..God I was a food whore. Hehe. I crawled out of bed, not really caring about the fact that my hair was completely spastic right now and shuffled into the bathroom, then the kitchen, yawining loudly. It was 6:30 a.m according to my watch, and everyone was having breakfast.

"Morning everyone." I yawned, sitting at the table as Viva appeared with a bunch of nice large pancakes piled onto a large platefor everyone to take from. I grabbed two and spread butter and golden syrup on them and scarfed them down, then sculled the glass of milk in front of me, then excused myself to get dressed.

"Thanks Viv, you're the best!" I called as I disappeared into the bathroom with fresh clothes to freshen up for the day and get ready for training. Once I was ready and had my hair in some order I walked into the kitchen, said a quick goodbye to everyone still eating breakfast and left. Did I forget to mention that by the time I was ready it was 7:30 a.m.? Yeah, I'm really slow in the morinings.

Fiteen minutes later I had finally found the bridge Sasuke asked me to meet at and leaned against the railing on one side to wait for him. I didn't have to wait long because five minutes later he came walking down the road towards the bridge. He looked up in surprise to see that I was even early, let alone on time.

"You're early." He stated, walking up to me. I pushed away from the railing and nodded. He smirked and loked down at me. Why did I have to be so short?

"Alright, first, I want you to run laps around the edge of the clearing." He stated as I followed him to a clearing that looked about as big as a four hundred meter race track. I nodded and started jogging to pace myself. After several laps I started picking up my pace, and kept going like that, with Sasuke calling constructive critisism and encouragement-yes, I am just as surprised as you are that Sasuke would actually encourage someone-until I was going so fast that everything was a blur. I ignored the searing pain in my side and chest until Sasuke finally called that I could stop.

I slowed down and jogged towards him until I was walking. I put my hands behind my head with my fingers laced together and I was panting hard. I swear I'd never run so fast in my life. When I reached Sasuke he handed me a water bottle and I guzzled the contents and dropped to the ground, exhausted.

"Alright, take a break, then I'll get you to start working on th jutsu." He sat down beside me as I lay back and stared up at the sky, which had several clouds skimming across it. I sighed peacefully as I stared up at the sky and closed my eyes a little, breathing in the fresh air, which I never really could smell at home because of all the fumes and smog in the city where I go to school.

One question," I murmured, breaking the silence between myself and Sasuke.

"Hn." I could feel Sasuke looking at me, and I cracked an eye open to look at him.

"Exactly _what_ is the jutsu you're teaching me?" I closed my eye again as Sasuke sighed and lay down next to me on his side, looking at me. he stared at me a moment before sighing again and answering.

"I'm teaching you Chidori, literally translated to-"

"Thousand Birds, I know."

"How much else do you know?"

"Hmmm….let's see, I know about Doujutsus such as the Sharingan and Byakugan. I know that the Chidori comes under the catergory Ninjutsu and there's also Genjutsu, which are the illusion techniques, and Taijutsu, which, back in our world, has many different techniques and names. I learnt a Taijutsu that was called Tae-Kwon-Do, because it was originated from Korea, and I also learnt simple Self-Defence moves, but that is as far as my Tailutsu extends."

Sasuke nodded, then stood back up and looked down at me. I looked up at him in confusion as he smirked. Then I groaned mentally. _Don't you even DARE!_ was my first thought until the words I dreaded came out of his mouth.

"Alright, on your feet, back to training." I groaned out loudand started to push myself upwards when I realised I could barely move. I looked down at my legs to see them shaking uncontrolably, and when I looked at my hands, I noticed they were in the same condition. I growled in anger then looked up at the cocky bastard, whom I unfortunately have a slight crush on.

"You expect me to get up on my feet when I can't even feel my legs like its nothing?"

Sasuke just grunted the ever famous 'Hn' and smirked again. I sighed and tried again to stand up but again failed miserably. I gave up and collapsed onto my back again. I looked at Sasuke's upside down face as he stood over my head.(Think Spiderman with Harry and MJ, only they aren't about to kiss)I stared back up at him, then grumbled, "You're absolutely no help at all."

"Hn."

"Whatever." I rolled onto my side and closed my eyes, and, suddenly, I was standing before a giant gate.

'_Wait, why does this look so familiar?' I asked myself._

'_**Because you have seen this gate before my cub, in your dreams. You have also seen the Fox child's gate in the tv show you watched back in your world.'**_

_I stared at the gate, startled when a pair of peircing green cat's eyes appeared before me, and a giant face appeared in the light that passed some way into the gates and I saw the face of a large Tigress standing before me._

"_No way in all Hell is this possible." I said outloud in the gate room. The Tigress chuckled._

'_**Believe me, cub, it is. I, am Shichibi, The Seven Tailed Tigress Demon, better known as Onitora.'**__ I continued to stare in disbelief._

'_No way, one of the tailed demons in me? I guess that explains the tiger appendages then….' I trailed off on that thought as Onitora chuckled._

'_**Fear not cub, you'll be surprised to hear that I was one of the docile demons who were trying to persuade Kyuubi to stop his rampage and attack on the Leaf Village. Foolish Fox, thinking he was cunning enough after being alive for over nine thousand years thought we couldn't stop him. In the end, it lead to all of us being sealed inside our vessels.**_

'_**You my child, are part of a very important prophecy. Your fate, along with mine, determines the future of the Five Great Nations. I do not know the prophecy words itself, but you will find out in time……'**_

"Artemis, wake up!"

I groaned and cracked my eyes open to see Sasuke kneeling beside me, a look of concern on his face-yes, actual concern people. I groaned again as spasms worked their way through my legs. Sasuke kept looking at me, waiting for me to say something.

"I think, I've reached my limit….." I mumbled before passing out from exhaustion……

~*~*~*~~*~*~*~

Sasuke's POV

I looked at Artemis as she woke up, groaned, groaned again and then finally mumbled something.

"I think, I've reached my limit….." She murmured before passing out from exhaustion. I looked over her body to see that I had definetely overworked her in training today. Her lmbs were shaking badly, she needed ice one them, and pretty quickly. I picked her up bridal style in my arms, her head cradled to my chest, and made my way towards Naruto and where he was training Artemis' friend Alyss.

When I arrived, it looked like Naruto was teaching Alyss the Rasengan technique. I 'Hn'ed to myself then walked over.

"Oi! Naruto, I need to take Artemis to your place, she passed out from exhaustion. The minute I said that Alyss was over here, looking down worriedly at Artemis. She continued to look over Artemis for a minute then looked up at me with anger in her eyes.

"How dare you Sasuke Uchiha! You worked her too hard! Back at home she could barely run 500 meters and now you've completely done her in for two whole days at least!" I looked down at Artemis, slightly shocked. She could barely run 500 meters in her world? Impossible. Because the speed she was running and how long she went for she must have been going for over 4000 meters at least.

After a very heated debate with Alyss, I took Artemis back to Naruto's place with Alyss and Naruto, since he had decided to call it a day with Alyss' training anyway. Along the way, we were joined by Zeala and Viva. Zeala went stiff and silent when she saw Artemis. Viva's reaction however was quite the opposite.

"OH MY GOD ARTEMIS!!! HOW DARE YOU SASUKE UCHIHA?! I CAN NOT _BELIEVE_ YOU WORKED HER TO THE POINT OF EXHAUSTION ON HER SECOND DAY OF TRAINING!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG SHE COULD BE UNCONSCIOUS FOR?!?!? DO YOU!?!?!?!?!" Viva was about to lunge at me when Naruto and Zeala stopped her.

"Viva. Two words for you. Shut. Up. You're giving myself and everyone else a headache." Zeala stated calmly, letting go of Viva when she relaxed.

Oh man, was I in for a rough week…..


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Fuzziness was all I could currently comprehend as I tried cracking my eyes open. Everything was a multi coloured, fuzzy mass of fuzziness. Until I blinked a few times and brought my world into focus again. I realized that all my friends were asleep on the floor around me, even Zeala was asleep on the floor. Naruto was there too, and Sasuke was knelt down beside my bed, his arms crossed and his cheek resting on them as he slept. I smiled as a lone tear slid down my cheek. After eight or nine years of being bullied, it felt good to be surrounded by friends that I know cared about me.

I reached a hand up to rub the tear away then layed my arm back down by my side.I breathed out a silent sigh and sat up a little. The movement of the bed myst have woken Sasuke up, because he stirred a little bit, groaning and cracking his eyes open.

'_Must be a light sleeper.'_ I thought as he opened his eyes to my waist. I happened to notice the slight pink colour that stained his cheeks as his eyes roamed up to my face and I smiled softly.

"Good morning." I whispered. Sasuke nodded in reply. I pulled the sheets off of me and stood up a little shakily, but otherwise fine. I tiptoed around my sleeping friends and made my way to the bathroom, then the kitchen. I proceeded to dig out some eggs, bacon, bread and sausages to make breakfast for everyone. Sasuke stepped into the kitchen as I was cutting bacon to fit on the sandwich press.

"I apologise for over-working you, I didn't realise you would become so exhausted so easily." Sasuke formally stated quietly. I nodded and turned around to face him, knife pointed at the ground. I smiled slightly as he eyed the knife then I turned back around.

"It's no big deal, besides, accidents happen and you can't do anything to prevent them from happening, also, you couldn't possibly know how poor my stamina is unless you asked. And without mistakes, people wouldn't learn, that's the way the world works my friend, and I have every intention of living by it." I turned back to the bacon and put several rashers onto the sandwich press and turned them once I thought that they were ready on the underside. I repeated the process until I had used the whole packet of bacon, then once all of it was cooked and on a plate in the microwave, I cracked some eggs onto the sandwich press.

"I should probably make enough for everyone to have two eggs, at least one piece of toast, about five or so rashers of bacon, and two sausages each." I mumbled as Sasuke watched me cook with interest. Unknown to me I had started singing lyrics to a certain song under my breath.

For All Lovers-Stanfour

_This one goes out to the nomad,_

_This one goes out to the broken ones,_

_This one goes out to the angels,_

_Fallen from the sky_

_And this one goes out to your brother,_

_This one goes out to your mother,_

_This one goes out to your sister,_

_And this one's for you….._

_And all the Lovers, and Believers,_

_And the ones who've been betrayed,_

_To all the fighters, all the dreamers,_

_And the ones who've not been saved,_

_Don't lose you faith,_

_I know you're right,_

_Don't be scared of bein' lonely,_

_I'm here with you……_

_This one goes out to the nomad,_

_This one goes out to the broken hearts,_

_This one goes out to the people left behind,_

_Waiting to be found,_

_I've seen your shadow in the dark,_

_I've seen the struggle in your life,_

_fells like nothing comes out ri-hight….._

_And all the Lovers, and Believers,_

_And the ones who've been betrayed,_

_To all the fighters, all the dreamers,_

_And the ones who've not been saved,_

_For all the Lovers, and the ones who've not been hurt~…_

_I know you're right,_

_you've got the something in your eyes,_

_I know that you. Will. Be. Alright._

_Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,_

_Don't be scared of bein' lonely….._

_For all the Lovers, and Believers…._

_For all the Fighters, and the Dreamers…._

_And the ones who've not been saved!_

_And all the Lovers, and Believers,_

_And the ones who've been betrayed,_

_To all the fighters, all the dreamers,_

_And the ones who've not been saved,_

_Don't lose you faith,_

_I know you're right,_

_Don't be scared of bein' lonely,_

_For all the Lovers, and Believers…._

_And the ones who've been betrayed….._

I sighed as I finished cooking and set the plates of food on the table for everyone to choose from and set the table. Sasuke sat down at the table, but politely waited for everyone to wake up before eating. So, me being the annoyance I am, grabbed a couple of pots, a mischievious grin on my face.

"You wanna help?" I asked. Sasuke looked up and shook his head with a smirk on his face.

"Your loss then." I shrugged, and then grabbed my pots and purposefully stomped loudly up the stairs and banged the door open to my room, where everyone was currently sleeping on the floor. I whistled Aussie Dog working girl style and banged my pots together, causing plenty of racket to wake everyone in the room.

"Rise and shine you lazy bums! Breakfast is served!" With that I ran back down the staors as everyone comprehended that they were all just rudely awoken by myself and were told that breakfast was on the table. I took my seat with a grin as everyone ran down the stairs at once.

"ARTEMIS!!!!!!" I was dragged from my seat and now at the bottom of a dog pile on – you guessed it, me. I was crushed so bad I could only summon up the breath to yell a few words.

"Get offa meh! Can't fudging BREATHE!" Everyone laughed and untangled themselves from eachother, leaving me dizzy on the floor, with anime swirly eyes to boot. I shook off my dizziness as everyone sat down at the table and stared at the food I had cooked.

"Oh stop admiring my food and just EAT it like sane people would!" I said sarcastically, sitting down as well and digging in, everyone else not too far behind. I looked around the table as I was eating breakfast to see that it looked like everyone was enjoying the meal I had cooked for them all. I smiled behind a forkful of sausage, egg, bacon and gravy and finished my food. When everyone was finished I stood and cleared the table with help from Alyss.

When that was done everyone got dressed and ready for the day and congregated in Naruto's lounge room. I was the last person to walk in because I didn't get the bathroom until last and sat on the arm of the couch next to Sasuke. The room was silent and everyone was stareing at me like I was an idiot.

"What? Do I have something on my face? Did I do something stupid again and can't remember it?" Everyone shook their heads and Zeala and Viva glared at Sasuke. I looked at them curiously as Viva turned to me and explained with slight venom in her voice.

"Stupid baka of a man you call sensei this week over worked you to the point where you fell unconscious for three whole days!" Now that completely surprised me. I've been unconscious for the past three days? Now that confused me to no end. I looked at Sasuke as he looked at the ground.

"Hmmm…..oh well, accidents happen and there's nothing you can do about them, besides, I'm sure Sasuke learnt from his mistake." Viva and Zeala continued to glare slightly at Sasuke and I sighed, shaking my head.

"Guys, stop glaring at Sasuke, Im fine, I mean, if I can get up out of bed and walk around like nothing happened I must be in top condition again, so, stop your glaring contest." Finally, Viva and Zeala dropped there glares and looked at the floor as we all sat in silence for a moment before Naruto spoke up.

"Hey, how about we go find everyone else and introduce Art, Viv, Aly and Z to them?" Naruto asked. I kinda figured which 'everyone else' he was referring to. He meant the rest of the rookie nine. My head shot up at this and I grinned. I really wanted to meet Hinata, Shikamaru and Kiba, they, apart from Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke-even though I wouldn't say the last one out loud- were my favoutrite characters. Ino I'm not so sure about meeting, Chouji I think I could deal with. Shino, I'd like him, but not so much his affinity with bugs.

"I think I'll just take a walk Naruto. I'm still feeling a little tired. I'm hoping some fresh air will help." With that I stood up, waved goodbye to everyone, and left for my walk. I breathed in deeply and sighed, revelling in the smell of the clean air, something that was rare in my world right now. Thinking about home got me thinking back to my parents, and my pets…..

~Flashback~

"_Artemis? Don't forget you have to pack to go back to school soon." Mum informs as she comes into my bedroom where I'm lying on my bed reading._

"_I know mum." I reply, looking up from my book._

"_Don't forget anything this time, okay honey?" I rolled my eyes slightly. But it's true, I was known to forget things most of the time._

"_I won't mum." I smile a little bit. Mum returns my smile._

"_Goodnight honey, I love you." Mum kisses me quickly on the cheek and I return it._

"_Love you too." I reply as she walks out of my room and shuts the door behind her….._

_~*~*~*~*~_

"_G'morning mum, morning dad." I yawn before sliding open the door that lead to our backyard._

"_Good morning boys!" I coo as my three dogs run over to me and proceed with their morning routine, Jacko jumping up onto my legs for food, Muzz licking my ankles and calves in hopes of food and Spikey sitting in the background near me waiting patiently to be picked up and cuddled, which I did rather quickly, cuddling my face into the long, soft fur on his neck._

"_Good morning Spikey." I murmur into his neck as I feel him lick my cheek. I giggle and then sit down in one of the chairs surrounding our outdoor table and put Spikey back on the ground and pick up Muzz, our puppy who was about six months old._

"_Good morning terror." I said with a smile as Muzz licked at my cheek and pushed his paws onto my face. I giggled as I felt Jacko jump onto the edge of the chair and put Muzz down, giving Jacko a quick pat before they started play fighting……._

_~*~*~*~_

"_Thanks for dropping me off dad." I said as I gave my dad a hug._

"_It's alright, be a good girl now Art." My dad replied, kissing me on the cheek as I did the same to him._

"_I will, _you_ be good dad." I replied, giggling._

"_I haven't got a choice now have I?" He asked before letting me go and walking towards his truck as a tear slid down my cheek……_

~End Flashback~

I hugged myself a little as some tears slid down my cheeks. Mum. Dad. Spikey. Muzz. Jacko. Even Audrey, my annoying lump of a sister. Was there any chance what-so-ever that I would see my family again? I missed them so badly.

I crouched on the ground and let all my sadness out on the side of the street I was on.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

I don't know how long I was there for, but it felt like ages. Just crouching on the corner of the street, crying. Missing my family hurt so much. I didn't even realise that there was someone standing in front of me for I don't know how long before they decided to speak.

"Hey, what are you doing sitting there crying? Did something happen?" I looked up through my tears to see a boy around my age standing there looking at me. He had dark brown hair, and electric blue eyes. He stood with his hands in his pockets, but there was a slight smile on his lips as he looked down at me. I shot up with a hard glare on my face before I walked off towards the Ramen Bar, having nothing better to do with my time.

When I arrived at the Ramen Bar, I was surprised that no one was there apart from the old man and Ayame. I sighed quietly and sat at one end of the bar, waiting patiently to be served.

"Hey, you're one of Naruto's new friends aren't you? What can I get you today?" Old man Ichiraku asked, standing in front of me on the other side of the counter. I smiled weakly at him and replied softly, "Chicken ramen please, and a glass of milk."

He started making the ramen while I laced my fingers together and rested my chin on them as I thought things over. How did we end up in Konoha in the first place? Surely this was all some strange dream I'm having. I moaned and pressed my forehead into my hands, rubbing my eyes with my palms. Ayame saw my actions and walked over to stand in front of me.

"Hey there, what's wrong?" She asked, leaning on her elbows on the counter a little bit. I looked up from my palms and sighed.

"A lot. Life got complicated for me recently. Really complicated. I know who I am. I know where I came from by heart. But what I don't know is, how did I get here? Will I ever see my family again? Is this al some crazy mixed up dream I'm having?"

Ayame sighed at my questions then cracked a small smile at me.

"Well, you know what I have to say to that?" She asked me, still grinning. I eventually returned her grin as we both recited the same saying in unison.

"Life's a bitch, cause if it were a slut, it's be easy!" Then we both laughed. When I had calmed down I smiled.

"Thank you Ayame, that helps a lot." Ayame grinned and gave me a thumbs up.

"Anytime, besides, you looked like you needed cheering up." Then she handed me my bowl of ramen and my glass of milk.

"Thank you." I said quietly before grabbing a pair of chopsticks and breaking them apart.

"Itadakimasu!"("It's time to eat now!") I announced before I started to slurp up my ramen, pausing every now and then to reply to questions the old man and Ayame asked me or to sip at my glass of milk. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, I heard a very familiar, _loud_ voice coming from down the street.

"Uh oh. Ayame, old man, looks like your one man rush hour is about to arrive." I said quietly as I continued to eat my ramen. Ayame looked up at me in surprise. The old man also looked up from his noodle cooking.

"How do you _know_ that?" They asked in unison with wide eyes. I simply pointed to the fuzzy tiger ears that decided to randomly grow themselves out of my head. They nodded with silent "Oh"s as I continued to eat in silence, until Naruto ran in. When Naruto walked in and saw me, he ran to the door again.

"Hey everyone, she's in here!" Naruto hollered as everyone else from our group and several extras stepped inside.

"Way to ruin the silence Naruto, it was nice and peaceful in here, now I'll be leaving with a headache." I mumbled the last part to myself, rubbing my temples before continuing to eat my ramen. Everyone sat along the bar as I continued to eat in silence, Z, Viv and Aly, as well as Sasuke-I know, scary right?-watching me with concern on their features.

What could they do? I was feeling really put out now that I remembered my family back in our world. How we got here was still a mystery to me in the first place. I sighed as I finished my bowl and then rested my head in my arms on the bench, with my eyes closed. Just as I was about to take a nice cat nap, I heard a familiar voice mumble, "No wonder I hate cats, their anti-social."

With that my head shot up from my hands and I growled slightly, looking for the perpertrater. Finding him, and his huge dog. I sighed.

"Naruto or somebody introduce me to him so I can clobber him and curse him for calling me a _cat_ when I happen to have the appendages of a _tiger_." I emphasised. Naruto then looked up at me, then across at Kiba, then the others before introducing them all.

"Okay, Artemis, this is Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Shino, Hinata and Kiba." After that was over and done with, I stood and hit Kiba upside his head before leaving alone to go to the same place I found yesterday.

Using a simple summoning Jutsu, I summoned my guitar and slid it onto my back before continuing. I also had my iPod in my pocket for usefullness. I walked casually until I had found the same tree I was sitting in the first day I found it and climbed up into it the old fashioned way.He asked me if you've been licking anymore condoms

I sat comfortably in the braches and switched through my songs until I found one worth singing.

After the Rain has Fallen – Sting

_When pascals yeah,_

_Are sleeping,_

_Fire's burning,_

_Into the night,_

_There's a sign of rain on the, _

_Dark horizon,_

_All that's left are the quartz of oooh of light,_

_It climbs up,_

_Through the darkness,_

_No weapon,_

_No surprise,_

_The greatest thief in the,_

_High Sahora,_

_Into the room where a sleeping princess lies,_

_All your money,_

_Your pretty necklace,_

_This is my word on,_

_Such a night,_

_There's a storm comin',_

_Over the mountains,_

_I'll be gone, long before the mornin'~_

_Chorus_

_After the rain has fallen,_

_After the tears have washed your eyes,_

_You'll find out I'll take another that,_

_Love can replace in the blink of an eye~_

_Your as gentle as a night wind,_

_As no love has been~ before,_

_Gonna miss you off for a bright room,_

_Slip from my fingers and fell through the floor,_

_Take me with you, take me with you,_

_For my lonely life is sad,_

_I've been promised,_

_To another,_

_To a man I'll never even know,_

_Chorus_

_After the rain has fallen,_

_After the tears have washed your eyes,_

_You'll find out I'll take another that,_

_Love can replace in the blink of an eye~_

_After the fun has spoken it,_

_After the life in both see her,_

_After the dream unspoken that,_

_Still be love in the world,_

_She said take me to another night,_

_Take me for a Paris wife,_

_Take me where the wind blows,_

_Take me where the red wine flows,_

_Take me to the danger,_

_Take me to the life of crime,_

_Take me to the stars,_

_Take me to the moon while we still have time~_

_Chorus_

_After the rain has fallen,_

_After the tears have washed your eyes,_

_You'll find out I'll take another that,_

_Love can replace in the blink of an eye~_

_After the fun has spoken it,_

_After the life in both see her,_

_After the dream unspoken that,_

_Still be love in the world_

_Still be love in the world(x8)_

_Still be love in the world…._

I strummed the last few notes then exhaled deeply, panting a little. Sting was a great artist, but most of his songs had dragged out notes that knocked the wind out of you unless you had capable enough lungs. I stiffened as I heard slow clapping. I stood, my guitar disappearing in a puff of smoke as I remained calm and searched for chakra signatures.

Sensing one much more powerful than my own, I gasped to myself.

'_Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhh……..shit' _I thought ironically as a certain immortal stepped out of the shadows, and a certain plant man materialised from a tree nearby.

"Fuck." I stated simply, knowing my only option was to run back to Konoha. So, that's what I did. I sprinted as fast as my legs would take me back into the village.

"Shit! Why didn't I call dibs on Kakashi first?! I could've learned that teleportation jutsu of his!" I ran towards the ramen shop and careened inside, toppling straight into my friends.

"Art, what the hell happened? Z had a premenition that something bad was going to happen and we know she's never wrong." Alyss interrogated as I hunched over panting, before straightening back up and taking in big gulps of air.

"In……playing guitar…..ambushed…..Akatsuki…..Hidan and Zetsu……." I panted out. Everyone gasped except Alyss, who had only watched as many dvds of naruto as I owned, but my extent of knowledge as far as Naruto goes extended further than that. I could name all the main members of Akatsuki.

Pain(Leader-sama),

Konan,

Itachi Uchiha(deceased),

Kisame Hoshigaki,

Deidara(deceased),

Sasori Akasuna(deceased),

Hidan,

Kakuzu(deceased),

Zetsu,

and Tobi(Madara Uchiha).

All in all, the remaining members of Akatsuki were the strongest, and if Hidan and Zetsu were here, we were in deep, deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep shit.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:**

**Me: Well, this is the first time any of my readers would have heard from me personally while I'm posting a story, so, let me personally say welcome to the world of 'What The Hell', which is probably going to be my most ongoing fanfiction ever to exist.**

**Artemis: *nods* it's true, So get ready to hear more about me and my friends ^^**

**Me: *eyetwitch* Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanywaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, my friends and I have it worked out, and because I have so many godammed ideas stuck in my head (I officially hit 80 something different fictions two days ago**

**-.-;) We have 'What the Hell is Happening to My Life', then, we have 'What the Hell is Happening to My Life 2' IN which a lot of confusing things happen and All of our lovely female OC characters find out that they're pregnant/giving childbirth/looking after children of their own now. Then in 'What the Hell is Happening to My Life 3', you're introduced to Artemis, Alyss, Viva and Zeala's children at ages 12 and above or below respectively, and their points of view on life. After that we finally come to the end, where there will be a short epilogue story which will basically summarise all of the characters' lives after the end of 'What the Hell 3'. With me so far?**

**Kiba: *sweatdrop* You lost me at 'anyway'.**

**Me: *anime anger vein* What was that, Kiba-kun? *pulls out a manga book***

**KIba and Artemis: *gulp***

**Kiba: N-nothing!**

**Me: *puts manga book away* good, now, a disclaimer if you please, Kiba and Artemis?**

**Kiba: Right, Rachael doesn't own **_**Naruto**_**, or me, Masashi Kishimoto does.**

**Artemis: She does, however, own myself, and her friends, Kellie, Emma and Sasha own Alyss, Viva and Zeala respectively. DO NOT copyright us or the storyline unless asked, okay? Okay ^^**

**Me: Enjoy Chapter 6 everyone! ^.^**

CHAPTER 6

Everyone continued to stare at me as I collapsed onto my ass inside the ramen shop, breathing hard. That felt like running a marathon for me. What the hell were Akatsuki here for? Were they back for Naruto? Impossible. Team Kakashi killed off just under half of them, so it was impossible that they'd still be after Naruto, or is it? I'm so confused now.

Everything is happening at such a fast pace. We've only been here a week, we have no _fucking _clue how we got here in the first place. We're being trained to become Chuunin, which was supposed to span over a month and it's barely begun. And now, Akatsuki members were here in Konoha. We were in serious shit.

I continued to try and catch my breath as everyone suddenly came to their senses. I was hauled up off the ground by my friends and to my feet.

"Art, you're okay aren't you?" Viva asked as I continued to pant.

"I'm…..alright." I panted as I finally caught my breath. Damn my poor lung capacity! Then, the random who randomly talked to me on the street earlier came in, saw us, and looked at us, curiousity in his electric blue eyes, as my panting finally stopped. I looked up, saw him, and glared at him. I didn't say anything out loud but he caught my glare and instantly knew that he wasn't wanted around here.

The random was instantly forgotten as I was pulled onto my feet again and dragged off behind Viva and Naruto. I gaspedin surprise as they broke into a run, both holding onto one of my arms, with the others a little ahead of us.

"NARUTO!!!! VIVA!!!! LET GO OF ME RIGHT NOW YOU IDIOTS!!!!!!" I screamed as I bonked them both on the head while running. They both let go of my hands as I ran to catch up with the others, leaving Naruto and Viva to groan about the pain in their heads'.

"What are we doing?" I asked as I caught up with Sasuke. He looked over at me for a minute before replying.

"We're going to report this to Lady Tsunade, she needs to know that the Akatsuki are here." I nodded in response as Naruto and Viva caught up to us again and started yelling at me.

"ART, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!!! BELIEVE IT!!!!!!" The two screamed in unison before blinking in surprise and looking at one another in confusion. I sighed and slapped my forehead. Those two idiots had no idea how alike they were.

We sprinted at ninja speed along the rooftops until we reached the Hokage tower and proceeded to run up the spiraling stairs and through the halls to Tsunade's office. We knocked and waited until Tsunade called 'Enter' before pushing the door open and stepping inside quickly.

"Lady Tsunade, we have something important to report to you." Shikamaru began as all of the Rookie nine-unfortunately including pink haired biartch- plus my group of gals and Team Guy, piled into the room and stood single file in front of Tsunade. The Fifth Hokage rested her chin on her laced fingers as she eyed us all carefully.

"Alright then, spit it out, what is it?" She asked us as she scanned our group before I stepped forward. I looked at her steadily for a moment, allowing her to know that what I was about to tell her was the truth, since I had trouble keeping eye contact with people on a regular conversation basis.

"Lady Hokage. I was in the forest to get away for a while, and while I was there, I pulled out my guitar and sang. After I finished, two members of the Akatsuki appeared. Hidan and Zetsu to be exact."

Tsunade gasped quietly as I explained my findings, her eyes widening slightly. I stepped back after I finished my explanation to my place in between Sasuke and Alyss.

Now, I'm going to be upright and say that Alyss and I sometimes had these moments in our world, in the classes we had together, where we just looked at each other and kind of talked with our eyes. We had one of those moments now and, as I looked at Alyss' eyes, I noticed that her irises had turned violet and her pupils were slowly, very slowly, changing to a violet colour as well.

I gasped before jumping about a foot in the air as everyone just stared at me. I stepped out of the line we had formed in front of Lady Tsunade's desk and looked critically at Alyss' eyes as the pupils lightened about three shades further. I stared quizzically as Alyss blinked and her pupils lightened completely until they became invisible. I gasped again as my eyes widened.

'_What the freak is happening to Alyss' eyes?' _I thought to myself as I watched them change back to her original green eye colour, with pupils. I blinked, making sure that I had probably only been seeing things.

"What is it, Art?" Alyss questioned me, I shook my head and blinked again. I smiled at Alyss and clapped a hand on her shoulder softly.

"It's nothing Alyss, I was just seeing things." I replied. Alyss smiled in return as I turned back around to my spot in line. Tsunade looked at me oddly, before looking at all of us again.

"Thankyou for that information, we'll get some Jounin sent to that part of the forest, dismissed."

With that, we all left the building and stood outside the tower, waiting for each other. Once everyone had gathered around, I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"So, what are we going to do?" I asked everyone. Sasuke looked over at me in thought for a moment before responding.

"Simple, we just have to keep training the four of you to become Chuunin." Sasuke stated, looking over myself, Alyss, Viva and Zeala, but, for some reason unknown to me, his eyes lingered longer on me.

"Alright, we should change sensei's then, where the hell is Kakashi?" I asked, a slight anime anger mark popping up on my forehead due to my annoyance with aforementioned silver haired jounin. Oddly, the second the words hung in the air, the Copy Ninja himself appeared.

"Kakashi. . . . ." I growled, my anime anger vein growing due to growing annoyance.

"Sorry, a black cat crosse-" I cut him off.

"Oh cut the crap! You should have been here when we _left_ for Tsunade's office!" I snapped, becoming very, _very _irritated with the silver haired jounin.

"Alright then, you start training with me tomorrow, 9 o'clock sharp." He replied to my slightly snappish attitude. After I had that tid bit of info, I decided to head back to the ramen bar, muttering curses under my breath for no apparent reason.

"Stupid……god damned……idiotic…..idiota……baka…..good for nothing….." I grumbled as I walked towards the ramen bar away from everyone. Everyone had an anime sweatdrop moment at my international insults towards Kakashi.

"And that's why you don't get on Art's bad side, eh heh." Viva mumbled. Everyone nodded in agreement. Sasuke then decided to follow me and left the others, since everyone mentally agreed that it was best for someone to follow me, rather than leave me alone again. Reason why, last time they did, I found two Akatsuki members in the vicinity.

Sasuke caught up with me rather quickly and gently grabbed my wrist, pulling me to a stop. I spun around to face him, a glare fixed on my features.

"What now Sasuke?" I growled, my anger and annoyance still obviously in tact. He said nothing, but just kept walking with me back to the ramen bar. I continued to seethe mentally, cursing Kakashi and anyone else who had recently got on my nerves that weren't part of the group that consisted of myself, Alyss, Zeala and Viva. Thinking back to my friends also got me thinking about the fact that I left them outside the Hokage Tower. I slapped my forehead at my stupidity and groaned. I must have been coming off as such a bitch to my own friends back there, and that thought alone made my stomach drop. I had been through a lot in primary school back at home, and boarding school as well, but that didn't give me any right what-so-ever to treat my closest friends the way I had been treated. God I felt like such a worthless piece of junk at that moment.

I sighed in sadness this time as I again had one of those moments where I remembered what it was like at home, with my family, sure, I had less freedom then, but still, I really missed my mum, my dad, my pets, hell, I even missed the devil's spawn known as my little sister.

And then the damned tears had to start prickling behind my eyes didn't they?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Again with the tears? What was wrong with me? I crouched in the middle of the street again as I had my emotional moment. Sasuke looked on awkwardly, not sure what to do in this kind of situation since he wasn't exactly the most comforting person in the world at the moment, my secret, slight crush aside of course. Then, Sasuke seemed to loosen up slightly, and he crouched down beside me, and half wrapped his arm around my shoulder. Me being the emotional wreckage I am at present leaned my forehead on his shoulder as I continued to cry, as his other hand went awkwardly to my back and rubbed soothingly up and down.

We stayed like that for a moment, yes, in the middle of the street, before Sasuke shifted a little.

"I know I may not be the right person to comfort you at the moment, but what's on your mind?" He asked as he pulled us up and then, the next thing I knew, we were in the forest. He gently pressed a hand into the small of my back, leading me over to a large, shady tree and sitting down, pulling me down gently beside him. I sat in silence for a moment, contemplating how much I should tell him exactly. Then, I decided I'd come clean.

"I just feel so worthless at the moment, Sasuke. Like I can't do anything without hurting someone or feeling as if I've hurt someone. My whole life I've felt like that. I was pushed around, I was bullied immensely, I was treated like the class reject, because, in a way, I was. Then I met Zeala, and later Alyss, and finally Viva, and they made me feel like I belonged somewhere again. Like I was actually wanted.

"Right now I feel like a bitch for just storming off and leaving them behind like I did, I also feel like a bitch for getting mad at Kakashi because of my own impatience. And, to be honest, I hated feeling like that when I was younger, and I don't want to feel that way again. In some ways, I feel like I'm walking on eggshells with my friends. If I say one joke they could take wrong, and they felt insulted by it, I'd immediately feel like I am right now, and this feeling, my feeling of worthlessness and self pity, I hate it with every fibre in being. I want so badly to stop feeling like this, but I don't know _how_." My voice finally cracked at the end of my speech, and tears continued to roll down my cheeks in silent rivulets.

Sasuke looked thoughtful for a moment, as if what he was thinking could be of some assistance, but he never said anything. We just sat there in silence as I cried and he rubbed my upper arm slowly and soothingly. Come to think of it, the way his arm was moving was very comforting at the moment.

I rested my head on his shoulder, and the last thing I remembered was feeling something soft and warm pressed against my forehead for a single moment before I cried myself into the pits of unconsciousness that come with sleep.....

~*~*~*~~*~*~*~

I woke up to find that I was staring at Naruto's ceiling, and that I had been lain down under a blanket on his couch. I pressed an arm into my eyes and groaned. I forgot, never open your eyes straight away after waking up when there are any form of bright lights in a room. In this case, that would be bright sunlight streaming through a nearby window and onto my face.

I attempted to roll onto my side and ended up falling off of the couch and landing with a dull _thump!_ on the wooden floor. I groaned again and swaddled myself in the blanket, closing my eyes again. Then, my about to be peaceful slumber had to be interrupted by the sound of running feet dashing into the living room, followed by a skidding sound, and then a loud _oomph!_ on my part, as a certain hyperactive fourteen year old, cheetah eared girl had glomped me whilst I remained in my position on the floor.

"ARTEMIS!!!! YOU'RE AWAKE!!!!!" Viva screamed, causing everyone else to run into the room while I proceeded to turn blue, then purple. I gasped, trying to suck air into my lungs, with little success.

"VIVA! Artemis can't breathe!" Alyss reprimanded as Zeala and Naruto quickly pulled her off of me. I gasped loudly, gratefully sucking air into my lungs.

"Air! Sweet nectar of life!" I exclaimed in a gasp as I sucked much needed air into my lungs. Everyone in the room then started laughing as Viva sweat dropped and I sucked in breath after breath until I was no longer gasping for breath. Then, I sensed that something was off, so, I closed my eyes and concentrated. Alyss mumbled an excuse of having to do something before leaving.

Viva's chakra signature was only half of what it should be, and, to my utter astonishment, Viva's chakra signature felt exactly like.....Zeala's! I stood up on shaky feet, sucked in the biggest breath of all as I turned to face everyone.

"WHERE THE HELL IS VIVA?!?!?!?!?!?!" I screamed as loud as my raspy voice would allow. After a moment of stunned silence, Zeala broke it with a sigh, before making the handsign that released her shadow clone jutsu.

"That's the thing Art....we don't know." Zeala murmured quietly. I didn't notice, but at this point, my eyes had gone from emerald green to amber yellow-green as my canine teeth became slightly sharper. I was practically enraged.

I turned around, so as not to verbally hurt my friends in anyway, and screamed at the top of my lungs, "I SWEAR THE SECOND SHE COMES BACK FROM WHEREVER THE HELL SHE WENT, I'M GOING TO KILL HER, BRING HER BACK TO LIFE AND THEN KILL HER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!" Yeah, you don't get me enraged without regretting it.

I cracked my knuckles and flexed my hands repeatedly. Everyone, already witnessing what had happened to Sakura, stepped back warily.

"Where's a pink haired, bitchy, drama queen when you need a punching bag?" I asked through my teeth. Then, lo-and-behold, there's a knock on the door. Naruto quickly departed from the room to answer the door, and you can guess who's annoyingly pitched, nasal sounding voice was on the other side of the door. I grinned like a mad woman and walked to the entrance hall where I saw a familiar pink head of hair. I grinned maliciously. If you haven't guessed by now, I was sorta on the same train of thought as Onitora because she and I were currently having a Viva and Evaan moment where Onitora had half taken over my body.

I stalked closer to the door and growled lowly.

"Naruto, would you move out of the way please?" I asked in a sickly sweet tone of voice. Naruto, currently fearing for his life, shivered uncomfortably, and stepped aside rigidly, revealing my soon-to-be punching bag. When she saw me, she didn't gulp fearfully, she sneered instead.

"Oh, it's you. I was thinking it was my Sasuke, but then again, why would he hang around the likes of a _bitch_ like _you_?"

The word bitch reverberated throughout my mind as I twitched from the insult.

'_**Can I rip her apart?'**_ Onitora asked maliciously. What scared everyone is that the voice was heard aloud, not just throughout my mind. Sakura's eyes now widened in fear. I contemplated a moment.

"Hmm....should I really let you do that Onitora? This is surprising I know, but she might, _might_ be missed if we did."

Onitora's growl was also heard aloud, and that was all I knew as I was pushed to the back of my own mind, and instead of my green eyes now, were eyes the colour of a cats, with black slits.

~Onitora Artemis' POV~

I closed my eyes, and breathed in deeply, relishing in the feeling of being slightly free of my restraints, at least for a moment, Artemis was becoming an insistent nagging in the back of my mind. Well, our mind, nothing was private concerning the girl's thoughts anymore, especially the fact that she has a crush on the raven-haired boy that seemed to treat her nicely, unlike the pink haired girl that was finally beginning to cower in front of us.

I opened my eyes when I smelt her almost palpable fear. It was the sort of thing that, in a way elated me when I was fully free, able to run around and destroy things, but I'm nowhere near as bad as Kyuubi was, sure, I had tumbled the occasional mountain, but I always made sure there weren't any villages near or on the mountain beforehand. I may be a demon, but I hate the idea of snuffing innocent lives. Right now I was contemplating whether I should just scare her or kill her, but then again, fans of the pink haired idiot in front of me wouldn't be too happy with that, so I opted for scaring her.

I grinned maliciously and to the naked eye, it looked like I had disappeared. In actual fact, I was just running at almost the speed of light. I 'reappeared' right behind Sakura, leaned in, and breathed loudly onto her neck. I heard her gasp and stiffen. I grinned, and leaned into her ear.

"Boo." I murmured. You'd be surprised how _loud_ that girl can scream. And how high she can jump when she's scared. It's entertaining. I made sure that my human self could see all the action and she laughed in our head, then I decided to let her have her body back again and retreated to the recesses of her mind.....

~Artemis' POV~

After Onitora had shown me through our eyes what was happening, I cracked up laughing the second I saw Sakura scream and jump. As my canines shortened and my features became less prominent, I busted out laughing, in the threshold of Naruto's house, clutching my sides from the pain of laughing.

"Oh my GOD!" I gasped. "You have no idea how fun it is scaring a pink haired idiot who's lusting over an ice prince!" I continued to laugh as an anime anger vein appeared on Sakura's forehead *cough cough* billboard brow*cough, cough*.

"How dare you?!" She exclaimed. I calmed down and shrugged, a smug smirk on my face.

"Quite easily actually. By the way, that wasn't me, that happened to be my demon, Onitora, and she says that she had fun playing with you like a cat does with a mouse."

'_**I like the way you think, cub.'**_ Onitora purred in appreciation.

"_I ain't no cub.'_ Was my mental reply.

'_**Compared to my 7'000 years? You wish darl.'**_ Funny, her voice actually resembled that of my Australian accent when she said 'darl'. I was going to ignore the shortened pet name though.

'_7'000 years my ass-foot-face!'_ I retorted, before returning to the present from the recesses of my mind.

"Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-your d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-de-DEMON?!?!?!?!?!?!?" Sakura looked panicked. I grinned a cheesy grin and shrugged again.

"Eh, what can I say? I have the ears and tail to prove it, don't I?" Then, my carefree smile turned into a scowl as I stepped closer to the pink-haired weakling.

"Maybe next time you should think before insulting someone who's stronger than even your capabilities can reach." I gave her the cold shoulder as I passed by her to the spare room in Naruto's apartment, grabbing my guitar before pulling myself up onto the apartment complex roof.

As I like to say, when life gives you a guitar; tune it, play it, and sing as best as you can.

Unwell-Matchbox 20

_All day, staring at the ceiling, _

_making friends with shadows on my wall,_

_all night, hearing voices,_

_telling me that I should get some sleep_

_because tomorrow might be good for something,_

_hold on, feelin' like I'm headed for a,_

_break down,_

_and I don't know why_

_But I'm not crazy,_

_I'm just a little unwell,_

_I know,_

_Right now you can't tell,_

_But stay a while and maybe then you'll see,_

_A different side of me,_

_I'm not crazy,_

_I'm just a little impaired,_

_I know,_

_Right now you don't care,_

_But soon enough you're gonna think of me,_

_And how I used to be._

_Me._

_Talkin' to myself in public,_

_And dodging glances on the train,_

_And I know,_

_I know they've all been talkin' bout me,_

_I can hear them whisper,_

_And it makes me think there must be something wrong,_

_With me,_

_Out of all the hours they can,_

_Somehow,_

_I've lost my mind._

_But I'm not crazy,_

_I'm just a little unwell,_

_I know,_

_Right now you can't tell,_

_But stay a while and maybe then you'll see,_

_A different side of me,_

_I'm not crazy,_

_I'm just a little impaired,_

_I know,_

_Right now you don't care,_

_But soon enough you're gonna think of me,_

_And how I used to be._

_I've been talkin' in my sleep,_

_Pretty soon they'll come to get me,_

_Yeah they're takin' me oh~_

_Yeah I'm not crazy,_

_I'm just a little unwell,_

_I know,_

_Right now you can't tell,_

_But stay a while and maybe then you'll see,_

_A different side of me,_

_I'm not crazy,_

_I'm just a little impaired,_

_I know,_

_Right now you don't care,_

_But soon enough you're gonna think of me,_

_And how I used to be~._

_How I used to be (x2)_

_Well I'm just a little unwell._

_How I used to be (x2)_

_I'm just a little unwell._

I sighed as I finished the song. I loved this song back at home, every time it played on the radio when I was younger while we were travelling in the car I'd sing along with it every time. I tuned my guitar a tiny bit more, and started to strum again, not noticing the person standing behind me on the roof, listening to me.

Problem Girl-Rob Thomas

_Don't let 'em get where they're goin' to,_

_You know they're only what they think of you,_

_You heard of this emotional trickery,_

_And you felt like you were learnin' the ropes,_

_But where you're goin' now you don't know._

_When the kids on the street say 'What's your problem girl?',_

_And the weight of their smile gets too much for you to bear,_

_When they all make you feel like you're a problem girl remember,_

_You're no problem at all _

_You're no problem at all~._

_A pride like promises can let ya down,_

_You thought that you'd be feelin' better by now~_

_And you worry all the things they could do to you,_

_And you worry bout the things they can say,_

_Maybe you're seein' things the wrong,_

_Way._

_When the kids on the street say 'What's your problem girl?',_

_And the weight of their smile gets too much for you to bear,_

_When they all make you feel like you're a problem girl remember,_

_You're no problem at all. _

_You're no problem at all~._

_When the kids on the street say 'What's your problem girl?',_

_And the weight of their smile gets too much for you to bear,_

_When they all make you feel like you're a problem girl,_

_Try,_

_If you stand all you're for._

_You're no problem at all~_

_You're no problem at all~_

_You're no problem at all~_

I placed my guitar carefully to one side, making sure that it wouldn't slide off of the roof before tucking my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around my knees, and resting my head in my upper legs as I sighed into them.

"When they all make you feel like you're a problem girl~." I murmured harmoniously as I pulled my head away from my knees.

"Remember~, you're no problem. At, all~." 'Problem Girl' was another one of my favourite songs. If I could match it to anyone from this world, it would best suit Hinata in my opinion, as she feels like she's such a burden to her teammates. Hinata is a good person though, quiet and shy, kinda like how I was when I met new people and I didn't have my friends with me. Until I was comfortable with someone, I was shy and somewhat stand-offish. When I got to know someone, or was comfortable around them, I was my loud, crazy, book loving, anime addicted self.

It was then that I sensed the somewhat familiar chakra. I didn't move my head to acknowledge that I felt his presence, I let him keep believing that I didn't know he was there. After a moment of silence, I was bored waiting for him to speak first, so I acknowledged his presence.

"Why must you insist on being almost everywhere that I am?" The boy who had found me crying in the street and whom I had growled at earlier today approached and sat down beside me, some of his brown hair falling into his eyes.

He said nothing.

"Can I at least know the name of my potential stalker?" I asked sarcastically. He turned his head and grinned at me.

"Hibari, my name's Hibari." I shook my head with my eyes closed.

"I should've figured you'd have a name like that." He looked surprised.

"You know what my name means?" He looked incredulous. I grinned and gave him a peace sign.

"In my world, I've had eight year experience in learning Japanese, your name means Skylark." He nodded as he listened.

"Yeah, that's about right." We then sat in silence for a while, before I decided that I wanted to interrogate him some more.

"Why are you following my friends and I around everywhere we go?" I murmured the question, resting my chin on my knees. He looked thoughtful for a moment, as if contemplating telling me lies, part truth, or full truth.

"I'll know if you're lying." I added, and he flinched visibly.

"Well, you see, the thing is.......I'm from your world too." My eyes widened. That had come as a shock. Hibari, was from our world? This confused me to no end. I shook my head and rubbed my temples.

"Impossible," My voice was barely above a whisper. "How can you be from my world?" He looked like he wasn't joking, and Onitora confirmed that he wasn't lying.

"You remember, sometime a couple years ago, in the news papers all over Australia, how a half Japanese, half Caucasian guy of 16 just vanished?" I wracked my brain as it came back to me, the headlines, the posters, flyers, pictures of a teenage boy with dark brown hair that accompanies most Japanese, and the blue eyes of his Caucasian parent.

"That's impossible. You can't be him, because he's been assumed dead for over three years now. I was about to turn thirteen when that boy's disappearance graced the headlines of Australian news." Hibari turned to face me with sadness and slight surprise clear in his eyes.

"I know, I'm nineteen this year." Was all he said, and my eyes widened a fraction more.

"My name in our world was Hibari Seijaku. 'Skylark Silence'." My eyes widened even more. That was the boy's name. The one that had disappeared.

"Oh my wow." I murmured, unable to think of anything else to say. One of Australia's biggest mysteries, crime mysteries of all time, was sitting right next to me. He hadn't seen his family in three years, almost four. In a way, my heart went out to the poor guy.

"Your parents were in the news recently. After three long years of searching, they've given up, but they were distraught when they found out that they had no other choice. Your supposed murderers had probably already fled the country, committed suicide, anything was possible when they decided to give up." I let my words hang in the air a moment before I stood up, brushing my pants off.

"I'm going back inside now, but, Hibari, it was nice to finally meet you and not growl at you." I gave him a soft sad smile as I teleported my guitar back into my room before jumping down and flipping through the open window and landing, cat like, in the middle of the bedroom floor. I stood up, fixed my clothes, turned and shut the window. I sighed as my hand rested on the sill a moment.

Viva was gone, and, in return, I had just found a missing man classified as dead three years ago in our world. Life couldn't possibly get more complicated than this.

**Author's Note: Review because you no you love me even though I'm leaving you hanging a little bit, please? I'll give anyone who review a free imaginary micro cookie *holds up a jar of cookies* =3**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I closed the bedroom door behind me and walked back into the living room where Naruto and Zeala were waiting for me to reappear, since Viva was missing, Alyss had left, and Sakura had bolted due to fear. I sat down on the unoccupied love seat and looked across at the two.

"So, where did Viva go exactly?" I asked quietly, worriment and concern painting my features. Both remained quiet for a moment, before Zeala lifted her gaze to meet mine

"That's the problem Art, we don't know." Zeala dropped her head into her hands as I contemplated for a moment, before my mind was set. I sprang up from the couch and jogged out to the entrance hall, where I swiped my kunai hip pouch off of the hall table where I left it and then stepped into my sandals. Zeala poked her head out from the lounge room.

"Where are you going?" She asked as I clipped my pouch to my belt. I looked up at her and grinned cheesily.

"Isn't it obvious Z? I'm going to look for Viva." And with that, I opened the door and ran off towards the forest surrounding Konoha.

~*~*~*~~*~*~*~

I paused in my search in a clearing, panting as I looked around.

"VIVA SHIROI! IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE RIGHT THIS SECOND I'LL KICK YOUR ASS INTO THE NEXT MILLENIUM WHILE THE REST OF YOU STAYS BEHIND!!!!!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, hands cupped to my mouth. I dropped my hands and continued to pant, then coughed a little. I grabbed my water bottle from my hip and took a few sips, before I decided I had to have a break, my chakra reserves were low from boosting my speed and ability to stay on trees. I needed to rest.

I plopped down against a tree and sighed heavily. I dropped my head into my hands.

"Viva, where the hell are you?" I mumbled into my hands. Suddenly, there was a rustling from beside me. I gasped and jumped up onto my feet, landing in a crouch a few feet away from the bush. As the bush continued to rustle, I pulled out a kunai from my hip pouch and held it in front of me protectively as I creeped forward until I was right in front of the bush.

I heard a growling noise coming from the bush and, curiously, I poked a hand into the bush, only to have the back of my hand scratched by tiny claws. Wincing, I reached my hand in further, to feel soft, warm fur. I dropped my kunai and pushed my other hand into the bush and pulled out a small, thin, bedraggled tiger cub.

It growled in a cute sort of way at me, and my heart warmed. I adored baby animals, but how this one ended up so far from home was beyond my imagining. I gently sat back down in the clearing with the cub cradled in my arms.

"What happened to you little one? How did you end up so far from your home; your family?" I cooed softly. What was surprising was that I felt a _response_.

_How can I trust you? You're a human. Humans killed my family._ My eyes widened in surprise as I stared at the now obviously female cub in my lap.

"Not all humans are the same, little one. You see, I am the human vessel of the Seven tailed Tigress demon." I brought my tail out of hiding and pulled my hair down a bit straighter so that my ears were visible.

The cub, being curious, reached up and swiped playfully at my ears, and in return I poked her nose with my tail. Then I held her up to my face and looked into mesmerising amber green eyes.

"You must be hungry if you've been in this forest for a while." I commented softly. The response I _felt_ was: _"I'm so hungry, I haven't had anything to eat for three days now."_ I thought for a moment, before I came up with an idea. I stood up carefully and cradled the cub vertically along the right side of my body, with her paws resting on my shoulder, and ran through the forest back towards Konoha. The park seemed like a good place to start.

~*~*~*~~*~*~*~

When I arrived at the park, I immediately spotted the sixteen year old boy and his large dog running amok between the two of them. I jogged over to them with the tiger cub still in my arms.

Kiba looked up, noticing my proximity, and scowled slightly.

"What do you want?" He asked as I came over to him. I indicated the cub in my arms.

"I found her in the forest, and I have no idea how to take care of her, and she probably needs medical help, her family was killed." Kiba studied the cub for a moment, then indicated for me to follow him. He jumped onto Akamaru's back and Akamaru took off, with me following close behind them.

When Kiba came to a halt, it was in front of a small veterinarian clinic. He jogged inside, Akamaru close behind him. I followed him in and my nose wrinkled a little bit. I loved animals of all kinds, but that didn't mean that I was particularly fond of the smell that radiates from a lot of animals being in the same place at once.

"Hey Sis! We have a customer!" Kiba called into the back room, behind the counter, disappearing. He poked his head back out though, and motioned for me to follow him inside. I hesitantly walked behind the counter and into the back room, following Kiba into what appeared to be the examination room. There was a rib cage high table in the room, as well as a desk, with a computer monitor flickering. Then, most likely the owner of the clinic appeared in the room from yet another door. She had brown hair, like Kiba's, that was tied in a low pony tail. She also had the Inuzuka clan marks on her cheeks like Kiba did.

I was assuming that this was Kiba's older sister.(note the sarcasm people! I'm not that idiotic!)

She smiled at me softly. I smiled in return and decided to introduce myself.

"Hi, I'm Artemis Ryans, um, I found this tiger cub in the forest while I was looking for a friend of mine, and, er, I don't know what to do or how to care for her." Kiba's sister chuckled and nodded, taking the cub gently out of my arms.

"I'm Hana, Kiba's older sister and the vet that keeps this clinic from crashing and burning." I giggled a little at that as Hana placed the tiger cub on the table and proceeded to examine her. After a while, she turned back to me with a smile on her face.

"I'm glad you sought out Kiba to bring her to me. She's going to be fine, she just needs a regular diet. Okay, I'll write this down for you as well, okay?" I nodded before Hana continued.

"Alright, she looks to be about a month old now, so you'll need to feed her goat's milk, we have plenty of that here. When she gets to between 3-6 months, start weening her off of the goat's milk and start gradually feeding her more meat. By the time she hits 6 months of age, she should be eating a diet of mostly meat, water, and a little bit of goat's milk, okay?" I nodded as Hana wrote it all down for me and handed me the piece of paper.

Hana then disappeared into the far back room of the clinic and returned with a carton of 1 litre bottles in her arms, all the bottles containing goat's milk. I sweatdropped. Hana huffed as she put the crate down, dusting her hands off before standing up straight again.

"Kiba, you can help Artemis out by taking this crate to wherever she lives, got it?" Hana glared at Kiba as Kiba's jaw dropped to complain. He shut it and groaned, before nodding. He rolled his shoulders a few times before whistling Akamaru.

"Akamaru, combined transformation jutsu!" Kiba called as he jumped up onto Akamaru's back, and in a puff of smoke, Akamaru was Kiba's clone. I again sweatdropped.

"Kiba, you're not making your dog do the heavy lifting." I put the cub down for a second to have a walk around and closed my eyes, forming the correct handsign with my hands and concentrating on nothing but my chakra.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" I exclaimed. And, in a puff of smoke, there were two of me. The second me picked up the crate, and I once again picked up the tiger cub, who was pawing curiously at one of the table legs. I had to giggle at that, but the look on Kiba's face just set me off.

Hana sighed dramatically at the expression on her brother's face. She placed her hands on her hips once I had calmed down and Akamaru was once again Akamaru.

"Now," Hana began, holding a finger in the air as if she were dictating something.

"Kiba, you're still going to go with Artemis." Kiba groaned again and I chuckled as an anime anger vein appeared on Hana's forehead.

"Well someone is going to have to deliver a crate of milk every month and it sure as hell won't be me, because I have to look after things at the clinic, idiot!" Hana exclaimed as her and Kiba proceeded to have a small spat. After a few moments of this, I cleared my throat, causing the two to pause in their arguing.

"Um, if you two are done now, I'd like to be going now." I murmured. Hana nodded and we walked back out to the front room. I handed Hana 20'000 ryou(equivalent to approx. $20) and left the clinic with a thank you to Hana, Kiba and Akamaru in tow. I sighed as I breathed in the fresh air, and placed the tiger cub on top of my head, where she sat gingerly between my ears. I looked up at her as she looked upside down at me from my head.

I giggled.

"I need a name for you," I began, and the cub looked at me curiously. I smiled as I looked up to the sky in thought, not noticing that Kiba was looking at me curiously. I had my hands in my pockets while I was thinking. Then, like a classic anime moment, a light bulb lit above my head as I pulled the cub gently off my head and into my arms.

"How about…..Sara?" I asked her and she looked at me for a moment.

"_I like it…." _I felt the response and smiled as the cub climbed along my arm cautiously and onto my shoulder then up to my head again. I giggled as I kept walking, Kiba, Akamaru and my clone behind me as we eventually arrived back at Naruto's house. I pushed the door open and stopped inside to pull my sandals off.

"Oi Naruto! I'm back!" I called as I walked down the hall. Before I could even take two steps however, Naruto was in front of me.

"Did you find her?!?!?!?!" He half asked, half yelled. I winced.

"Don't yell, baka!" I began, as Kiba and my clone walked inside, followed by Akamaru, before I cleared my throat.

"No, I didn't find her. I went looking for her, didn't find her, but found a tiger cub instead." I pointed to my head where Sara sat, looking curiously at Naruto. Naruto looked up at the cub with a raised eyebrow, then sighed. I clapped a hand gently onto his shoulder.

"We'll find her Naruto, and when I do, her ears may very well fall off of her head with all the screaming I'll be doing." I grinned, then turned to Kiba.

"Thanks for bothering to come Kiba." I smiled as he nodded.

"No problem, let's go Akamaru." Akamaru barked and they both left, closing the door behind them as they went. I sighed and walked into the lounge room, where I dropped into the love seat, Sara jumping onto the top of the seat as my head fell onto the arm rest. I felt a weight jump onto the loveseat near my feet and then scramble up to rest on my chest. I looked down and smiled as Sara curled up and purred in front of me, closing her eyes and falling asleep, myself following moments later……..


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I groaned as I woke up in the middle of the night to a furry something nudging my face. My eyes fluttered open as I saw that I was still on the loveseat, with a blanket over me and a pillow under my head now, and Sara poking at my cheek with her paw. I groaned again and looked at Sara.

"What?" I whispered. Sara growl-meowed, which I had to chuckle at.

"_I'm hungry."_ She complained. I groaned for the third time. She poked at my face again.

"Alright, I'm up!" I exclaimed in a murmur as I sat up, then got up and shuffled into the kitchen with the hungry tiger cub behind me. I looked in the fridge to find all the milk had been put on the bottom shelf, and pulled out a bottle. I grabbed a bowl out of one of the cupboards and emptied the bottle into the bowl, putting it onto the ground as Sara dived onto the bowl and drank hungrily.

I watched her in the half light provided by the moon as she drank everything in the bowl, then licked her paws and cleaned herself a little bit. I sighed and picked her up, placing the bowl in the sink.

"Alright you, come on, back to bed." I murmured as I walked towards my bedroom. I shut the door quietly behind me and dropped into my bed, pulling my covers up. Sara curled up on top of the covers on my stomach and I fell back into sleep soon after…..

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I groaned as sunlight streamed in through my window in the early morning. I sat up and stretched, groaning. It's almost a week today since Viva disappeared. Naruto has been depressed, Alyss and I have been worried, Alyss more so than I, and Zeala has been thinking to herself even more than usual. All in all, we were very worried about the fourteen year old idiot that is our spastic friend.

I winced as I sat up. Kakashi had been training me well, which was very hard. He had brought me up to par for and had finished teaching me the chidori from where Sasuke had left off, and even had time to teach me the Raikiri (the lightning blade) after he handed me a little piece of square paper, which was a chakra type test, and we found out that I was best suited to water and lightning jutsus.

So, he had taught me most water jutsus that he had copied, and the chidori and raikiri. All in all a very profitable week. He even taught me that transportation jutsu of his.

After training with Kakashi until lunch time, I would have lunch, then I would train with Kiba, Akamaru and Sara until dark. Kiba had been teaching me some of his most used combination jutsus with Akamaru and helped in getting Sara up to par as a battle partner. I could now use the All Fours Jutsu, Beast Mimicry and Fang Over Fang. Sara had also grown a decent amount over the week I've had her for so far. She could now reach just above my knees if she stood up on her hind paws.

I shuffled into the kitchen, a hungry Sara on my heels as I pulled out her bowl and a fresh bottle of milk and poured it into the bowl and set it down before I got to work on everyone else's breakfast. I made bacon and eggs with toast for everyone. Naruto smelt the food and wandered out, his depressed state of mind temporarily forgotten. I set a plate of food in front of him as he sat down, chopsticks already in hand.

"Morning." I said quietly as I set the table for Alyss and Zeala before I served myself, sitting down diagonally from Naruto. Naruto just blinked sleepily, not saying anything and eating his food in silence. Soon after Alyss and Zeala joined us for breakfast, neither saying a word. It was too silent without Viva around……

~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~

I had cleared away the table and Naruto had gone off to train. Alyss was also out training and Zeala was in the shower, so hence how I ended up cleaning the mini cyclone that seemed to have occurred within the span of two week in the bedroom of Naruto's that I was currently occupying. Right now my laundry hamper was in the middle of the room and I was throwing all of my dirty clothes and underwear into it. After making sure that I hadn't missed any laundry, I hauled my hamper into the small laundry room of Naruto's, and threw my clothes into the laundry tub full of warm, soapy water to let them soak for a while to get all of the dirt and stains out of them. (remember, Naruto world, most likely not to have a washing machine or a clothes dryer!)

I sighed, clapping my hands together to rid them of imaginary dust, as I had a habit of doing, and walked out of the laundry room, shutting the door behind me and going back into my bedroom, where I proceeded to make my bed. Out of boredom, I also ended up vacuuming the whole house, except the bathroom, which Zeala was still occupying, and dusted everything off too. You'd be surprised how much dust collected in a blond haired knuckle headed ninja's apartment.

Alyss returned and Zeala finally came out of the bathroom as I finished dusting the last of the furniture in the lounge room. She raised an eyebrow at me in question and I shrugged.

"I was bored, Naruto's house was dirty, I figured it could use a little cleaning, since I have a day off of training with Kakashi and Kiba today." Alyss' eyebrow only rose higher.

"Right……. Art, I worry sometimes." She said, and for the first time since Viva disappeared, a small smile appeared on Alyss' face, as well as mine. Zeala walked over to us then.

"how about we go for a walk?" She murmured. "The three of us, we haven't had the time to in a while." I nodded my agreement, as did Alyss, and I grabbed the spare keys and locked up before we headed off, with Sara sitting potrun on my head as per usual. Zeala was walking a little ways ahead of myself and Alyss, so I took to looking around Konoha while we walked in silence. After a while of walking around we eventually found our way back towards Naruto's place. Zeala was well in front of Alyss and I by now and we were both off in our own worlds, so much so that there was simply a comfortable silence between us.

"HOLY FRICKING HELL!" I snapped out of reverie as I heard Zeala scream those words. Alarmed and cautious, Alyss in my wake and Sara on my head, we both sprinted towards Naruto's house, where Zeala was standing and pointing at……NARUTO AND VIVA KISSING?!?!?!?!?!?

"**HOLY FREAKING FUDGE!!!!!!!!**" I exclaimed. Viva was back! I looked between Zeala and Viva a few times to confirm that it wasn't just another clone, then made sure by checking the chakra flow of the two. Viva was definitely Viva! I practically ran her over as I jumped on top of her tired, stinking, dirty form and hugged her to death, Sara dancing around my feet. Viva then proceeded to cry before I let go of her and put my hand on my hips. Boy, was this girl in for it now!

"VIVA SONJA KATARINA SHIROI, WHERE IN ALL HELL DID YOU GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????" I exclaimed. Viva stood in silence, then I noticed something else. There were bandages on her arm and tail.

"WHAT IN ALL HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?!?!?!?!?! VIVA YOU ARE A RIGHT TRUE IDIOT, Y'KNOW THAT?!?!?!?! RUNNING OFF AND PROBABLY ALMOST GETTING YOURSELF _**KILLED**_ BECAUSE OF YOUR IDIOCY!!!!!!! I SWEAR TO GOD IT'S LIKE I HAVE TO MOTHER YOU!!!!!! AND WHAT IN GOD'S NAME HAPPENED TO YOUR ARM AND TAIL?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I AM SO CLOSE TO GIVING YOUA CONCUSSION FOR LEAVING IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!" Yep, me in hysterics, the far from silent type.

Viva sighed, then explained everything, and then she got to the training weights part. My eyes were basically the size of saucers. Y'know, the little tiny plates you put under fancy teacups? Yeah, my eyes had widened to an imitation of that size.

Right now, I felt like fainting, just for dramatic effect, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, I only felt like going to sleep. I silently left the room, leaving everyone else to their own devices while I disappeared into the bedroom I had claimed. I dropped onto the comfortable bed, sighing heavily. Everything was too overwhelming at present. The Akatsuki showing up, the weird hallucination I had concerning Alyss' eyes, Viva disappearing and then reappearing most of all. And, to put the cherry on top, I now have a tiger cub on my hands.

As all these thoughts ran through my head, I heard Sara pad across the room and claw her way up my bed sheets onto the bed, then up onto my stomach, where she curled into a little ball of warm fuzziness. That was all the comfort that I needed at present to succumb to sleep……


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The next two weeks of training passed by fairly quickly. One week of training with Naruto, since I had finished training under Kakashi, and then I had an extra week of training with Kiba. During my spare time I would eat my three square meals, just because I'm awesome that way, then I would go and train some more. So, I had no idea as to what the others had been doing.

I was training with Sara one such afternoon, when I heard Viva calling my name. She ran into the clearing that I was training in and skidded to a halt in front of me, panting. She held up a finger just as I was about to open my mouth to ask what she wanted. Damn, that girl was getting good.

"Alyss…..has……disappeared!" Viva panted. I stood stock still. Then, you guessed it folks, I went bang in a ball of black, red, denim blue and red-orange furry fury.

"WHERE THE FREAKING HELL IS SHE?!?!?!?"

"…..Hospital….." Viva panted. Determined, I sprinted off, Sara trailing behind me, in the direction of the hospital.

~*~*~*~

Alyss was lying on the bed, silent tears streaming from her now violet eyes. Silent tears were also running down my face as I stood watching her for a sign of movement. I had arrived about half an hour ago by this time and I had suspected for a while now, since the incident in Tsunade's office a while back, that maybe, just maybe, Alyss could have somehow gained the Byakugan. Now, I was even more sure. I didn't catch on quickly to most things, but Alyss was too close a friend to lose this way.

Alyss lay in the foetal position, curled in tightly on herself. Earlier, before this all happened and we wound up where we were, I only had to take one look at her face to know that she was absolutely petrified of her abilities, which is how myself, Kakashi, Hinata, and Neji were in the room, as well as everyone else, minus the pink haired bitch who seemed to think we were the scum of all Konoha's Chuunin.

I sat down on the bed as silent tears continued to stain my cheeks. I continued to look at Alyss for a moment before choking back a sob and dropping my head into my hands. I didn't know what to do anymore, things had been completely turned around. I had always imagined what it would be like here, with my best friends by my side, but, so far, it's a lot worse than I thought it would be. Everything was so different here, and coping was very hard, especially without my family to be my rock.

Put simply, I knew what was happening to Alyss, but I hadn't the slightest _idea_ of how to bring her out of her mental shell.

Kakashi looked at Alyss for a long moment, some emotion no one had ever seen before in his eyes, only just hidden by the remorse in his visible grey eye. Sasuke sat down on the bed next to me as I choked back another sob. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders in silent comfort as I leaned into his chest and continued to cry.

Sasuke and I had slowly become closer over the course of the past month, but I didn't know whether it would eventually lead onto anything. Sasuke hadn't said anything, but I wasn't sure as to what he was thinking either.

Kakashi looked around the room for a moment, eyeing everyone in the room in silent thought before turning to an angle where he could look at everyone in the room.

"Guys, I need to talk to Neji and Hinata for a moment in private, can I get everyone to leave the room for a moment?" Everyone nodded and filed out of the room in silence, excepting Hinata, Neji, Kakashi and myself. Sasuke hesitated when he noticed that I wasn't leaving the room. I turned to Kakashi and eyed him steadily with watery eyes. Kakashi met my gaze evenly.

"Kakashi, I know how Alyss ended up in this state. I also suspect what you know." Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly in surprise, then, he nodded, allowing me to stay. Sasuke, being the stubborn guy he is, stayed as well.

Kakashi looked at me as Sasuke walked over and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

"Do you have any idea how to wake Alyss up?" I made a surprised noise, then glared at the silver haired Jounin, not noticing that Alyss stirred on the bed, nor did I acknowledge Hinata's surprised gasp. I jabbed a finger at his chest and raised my voice slightly.

"Would I be crying if I did? I have no _idea_ how to wake Alyss from her current state you, you. . . . . ."More tears welled in my eyes as a sob broke past my defences. Sasuke turned me to him and pulled me to his chest as I continued to cry.

"A-Artemis. . . . . ." Hinata stuttered my name and I looked up with teary eyes. Hinata silently pointed to the bed where Alyss lay and I looked over to see her uncurling slowly and sluggishly blinking her eyes. I gasped in surprise as she sat up, then I sprinted the short distance around Sasuke to the bed and hugged Alyss tightly.

Alyss groaned and I pulled back as she clutched her head as she groaned again.

"I, ugh...I don't like migraines.. . . ." She muttered. I giggled a little at that, then hugged her again, gently this time. Then I became serious as I looked at her critically.

"What happened?" I asked her as I looked her in the eyes. She looked away for a moment before replying in a hushed whisper of a voice.

"I...I don't know if you'd noticed, Art, that me becoming a ninja is...difficult. It's gotten easier and I enjoy what I'm doing but recently another ability's presence became apparent." Alyss' breathing grew heavier and she tucked her head against her chest. I took a step forward and she lifted her head, hands still clutching her head, giving me a look that told me to stop in my tracks.

"The Byakugan is an awesome gift – awesome, in the literal sense of the word. Yet I have to admit...I cannot deny...the fact that I'm afraid of it." Her eyes brimmed with tears of what appeared to be shame. "I'm...I'm such a _waste_. Here I have this...this power of sorts and yet my blood runs cold at the very thought of it. Which twisted masters of fate would give such a treasure to one who is totally incapable of wielding it?" The tears flowed down Alyss' cheeks as her voice rose with exasperated torment.

"When we first came, it felt like all my past life had been so that I could become a ninja by strengthening my spiritual chakra. But the Byakugan goes against everything I had established with my mind. It blows wide open the gate to my final sanctuary and I don't know how to...I just don't know what to do..." Alyss laughed lightly after a moment, though without humour, startling the others.

"It's ironic in a way, isn't it? I'm always watching. Watching you, Viva, Zeala. Always watching. The Byakugan would help me with this...or it would if I weren't petrified of it." I stood in shock. I had guessed a million times over, both in this world and in our old world, but, I had never suspected _this_ would come from Alyss. How can anyone, _anyone_ ever think that they're worthless?

"Alyss," I breathed. "Alyss, you're not –" I was cut off by the approach of two noisy, and one deathly quiet, people, though the first two accounted for the latter's lack of sound. Alyss' eyes widened with panic and by the time Viva and Naruto had burst into the room, slowly followed by Zeala, she had already flung herself off of the bed and was shaking in fright, crushed into the corner made by the bed and the wall behind it.

"Alyss!" Viva shouted. "You've finally woken up! You have no idea how –" Viva was interrupted by Zeala.

"Where is Alyss?" she asked quietly.

"She felt the need to use the bathroom," Kakashi replied. I gave him a look. What the hell was with this guy and lying so casually? I wouldn't say anything though, since he didn't appear to want me to talk, knowing I would most likely break out the truth.

"And none of you felt the need to accompany her?"

"One of the medical corps took her," he lied smoothly.

"Nobody has left nor entered this room since you dismissed us. I was watching. Where is Alyss?" Zeala paused for a moment then realisation came over her. I could see it clearly written on her face. I had studied my friends faces for years. I knew when they felt hurt, betrayed, angered, enraged, happy, mournful. You name it, I've studied their faces concerning those emotions. Zeala, at the present moment, felt angered, upset, and there was also a flicker of betrayal in her eyes.

"She's here, isn't she? Why won't you let us see her?" I watched her step forward and I was sure that she would search til she found Alyss. I had to do something, right now, Alyss was petrified of almost anything, except the original people that were in the room when she awoke.

"Stop." Kakashi's voice was harder than I'd ever heard it and I mustn't have been the only one who thought so because there was a sudden silence.

"Now is not the time." Surprisingly, I couldn't have agreed more.

"Will there ever be a right time?" Zeala muttered as she left the room, Viva and Naruto following her, silent for once.

Oh boy, this sure was a problem, wasn't it? I felt guilty, and had absolutely no idea why I felt just that. Maybe it was the fact that, in a way, Zeala felt betrayed by not being allowed to see that Alyss was okay now. I don't know how Viva felt, but once again, I just felt completely and utterly stupid, like I'd done something harmful to all my friends and didn't deserve their forgiveness. I also felt like a weight was bearing down on my chest, which made me feel like, you guessed it, made me feel like crying again.

I just wanted to disappear for a while, forget about everything that turned my seemingly normal life very quickly upside down. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. I looked to Alyss, who was being gently laid out on the bed by Kakashi, who had been holding her bridal style. She smiled dolefully up at him as I walked back over to the bed.

"It'll turn out alright." He murmured. I nodded in agreement and took Alyss' hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze as she fell asleep this time, hoping that she wouldn't fall back into that state of mind she had been in.

When Alyss was fully asleep, I gently set her hand back by her side on top of the bed covers that she was tucked into and turned to Kakashi. He looked at me a moment, his visible eye crinkling to show what could possibly be a smile. I smiled in return and sighed, running a hand through my hair again. Sasuke looked on in silence.

"I'd better take my leave now. Kakashi, look after Alyss, please. You have no idea of the fragile state of mind she's in right now. It terrifies the life out of me to see Alyss so broken like this, I never want anything like this to happen to her again, if it can be helped. Alyss needs time to heal, but when the time comes again, I pray that she'll be able to trust in her abilities enough not to be petrified of attempting something like the byakugan. That ability is a great asset, but it also bears a major fault, which is hard for the more simple minded to detect, but it _is_ there, it _exists_ and, that's what scares me the most."

Kakashi looked astonished, Sasuke surprised as I continued my speech. "Kakashi, I couldn't bear to lose one of my friends, I wouldn't be able to handle it. After a while, if such a thing happened and one of my most cherished friends was no longer in this life, I might very well go mad and attempt to join them, just to appease my state of mind. Things like life and death situations which occur so readily and plentifully in this world made me realise that life itself, truly is short. It may very well be, however, the longest experience, if you were to survive every ordeal thrown at you.

"I worry about all of them every day. Viva can be crazy and out there, but she still manages somehow to look after herself. Zeala, Zeala's a fighter, she can survive almost anything. Alyss, she's so fragile sometimes, but she, in my opinion, by far, is the bravest of us four. She faces her fears head on and doesn't look back. Looking at all my friends, and comparing them to myself, makes me wonder, how I've survived this long, how I still manage to live through each day."

I sighed as I looked at the floor, before looking up at Kakashi again.

"That's probably the most of my thoughts that I've ever divulged to anyone, Kakashi, Sasuke. I normally don't open up like this." I exhaled loudly as tears threatened to well in my eyes.

Sasuke stood, looking at me for a moment of silence, then, stepped closer and pulled me into an embrace.

"I'll walk you back home." I nodded, sniffling as we slowly walked out of the door, one of his arms around my waist.

~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~

I sighed as I collapsed tiredly onto the grass, lying eagle spread on the ground and looking up at the clouds passing by. It had been a little while since the incident with Alyss losing herself in her mind, and I'm not entirely sure if she had attempted to use the Byakugan again since then, since all of us have been training very hard. I had left Sara at home today, feeling the need to hone my Genjutsu a little more, as well as my Taijutsu, my Ninjutsu being pretty much down-pat by now.

I looked at my watch and grunted as I stood up. I had to go and see Tsunade now concerning something. She said, from what I remember, something about giving me a useful weapon of sorts and an unofficial mission, which I was cool with, since I had no idea when exactly our exams would be.

~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~

I was definitely given a 'mission' during my visit to Tsunade's office, as well as a new wicked cool staff. It was probably the most simple thing in the history of tasks. Baby sit a civilian child for the day. Easy when you know how to act like a child in teenager form. I grinned evilly at the thought as I came up with a game to play with the child I was spending the day with; Yukiko. At most, she looked to be about seven years old. She happily told me when I was introduced to her that she would be entering the academy next year, to undergo ninja training. Both of her parents are in ANBU Black Ops and couldn't be more grateful that someone could readily look after their child for the day, since they were busy working and looking after Yukiko.

We were currently sitting in a clearing in the forest, or rather, lying down and watching clouds roll across the sky. Yes, we were having a total Shikamaru moment. I pointed to a moderate sized cloud in the sky.

"What do you think that is shaped like, Yukiko?" I asked in a muted voice, laziness taking over my body easily. I felt her shift, turning her head in one direction, then the other, as she contemplated as to what the cloud was shaped like. She rested once again, after a moment, and stayed silent a moment longer.

"It looks kinda like a love heart." She murmured quietly. I turned my head as well, searching, and found it. It did look like a love heart at a certain angle. A small smile curved the corner of my lip the smallest of bits. If I ever have kids, and one happens to be a girl, I hope that she will be as adorable as Yukiko. This kid is just too cute.

I rolled over and got onto my hands and knees, sitting up, enjoying the warm sun on my face. Today is the first day of February, we've been in Konoha for a month, so we were due for our 'unexpected' Chuunin exam sometime soon. I sighed, enjoying the feeling of the warm sun on my bared limbs and face. Today, I was simply wearing a black singlet, and white washed cut-off jean shorts that stopped at my mid thigh. By now, the whole village knew about our mysterious appearance, so, instead of having my tail wrapped around my waist, like it normally would be, I had it wavering freely, the tip of my tail quivering in contentment. I noticed Yukiko look up at me curiously. I looked down at her with a smile on my face and hummed in question.

"Artemis, what is it like…..being from a different world and all I mean?" I smiled as she sat up and I ruffled her hair playfully. Then I stared off into the distance for a moment, contemplating as to what to tell her about the world I grew up in.

"Well….it's much the same as this world I guess, except that the continents, countries, states, they're formed far differently to this world, Yukiko. In my world, everyone had their own language, English, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Deutsch, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Afrikaans, Ukrainian, and many other countless languages, and each was unique. I suspect that much the same is here in this world as well, however. There are several other differences however, but, they're harder to explain, and currently, harder for me to grasp." Yukiko nodded. Just then, I heard a rustling in a tree, followed by the tell-tale whistle, silent to regular human hearing, of a kunai or shuriken having been thrown. I gasped, then got in front of Yukiko.

"Ninja Art: Chakra shield!" (Artemis' personalised attack, or rather, defence mechanism. Artemis releases a burst of chakra in all directions, easily deflecting all forms of long range weaponry) I quickly pulled my recently acquired staff, which had intricate designs, gold caps on either end of a five foot, decorated pole, with three feet of reinforced lead in the centre. I pulled it from its holder on my back, and twirled it a few times in the oh so awesome way I had perfected during the day and brought it to a stop, with my hands closer to the end of the staff closest to my body.

"Yukiko, stay behind me, I'll protect you." I exclaimed as a rouge ninja, who appeared to be from the Hidden Grass village revealed himself. I glared, wrapping my tail around my waist, where it would be out of the way of being yanked.

"What do you want?" I growled, opting that, for now, I would put my staff away, switching it for a kunai. The ninja didn't answer, just suddenly rushed forward without warning and meeting my kunai with one of his own. We pushed back and forth, before I broke away, easily picking up Yukiko, and depositing her behind a bush, where I hoped she would be safe.

"Leave this to me." I murmured, before reappearing in front of the rogue ninja, meeting him head on with my kunai again. I leaped back, performing handsigns as I went.

"Rat, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Rabbit, Tiger! Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Flower Jutsu!" I heaved in a great breath and started spitting out chakra induced fire balls, of which my enemy dodged with precision. I growled in annoyance and flipped into the air and up into a tree.

'_**We could use our jutsu, cub.'**_ Onitora growled, I nodded my agreement and started to perform the handsigns.

"Tiger, Rooster, Dog, Snake, Dragon, Dragon, Horse, Rat, Horse, Tiger, Monkey, Ram, Dog, Dog, Tiger, Horse, Dragon, Tiger! Ninja Art: Call of the Tiger!" I exclaimed, as what sounded like a tiger's roar reverberated throughout the forest, and seconds later, demon tigers of all ages(you can tell by how many tails they have) appeared in front of me.

"You called us, milady?" The oldest one, who had five tails asked, turning and bowing to me. I nodded my confirmation, then explained the situation.

"I need all of you to guard a civilian child I have hiding just on the edge of this clearing, as for me, I'll be taking care of this rogue ninja." I growled the last sentence, as my eyes changed colour to a bright amber green, and whisker marks appeared on my face. I performed some other handsigns now, thankful for the extra training I'd been under with Kiba. I was starting to regret my decision to leave Sara at home now.

"Ninja Art: All Fours Jutsu!" I exclaimed as my nails grew longer and sharper, and my tail unravelled from around my waist to waver in the air freely. I then ran with new found speed at my enemy, tackling him around the stomach, then lifting him and throwing him easily across the clearing into a tree. I then leaped and flipped back yet again, throwing my right arm behind me, and willing my chakra to become visible in lightning form.

Once my jutsu was fully charged, I rushed towards my enemy.

"Chidori! One Thousand Birds!" I exclaimed as I was about to hit my enemy, before I felt him grab my wrist and swing me around, my attack hitting a tree and sparking a moment before dissipating. I yanked my hand free of the poor defenceless tree, before turning around to face my enemy again. My enemy now had a lazy, carefree smile on his face. I growled in frustration and curiosity.

"Congratulations," He began in an eerily familiar voice. Then, he went _poof!_ causing me to jump a foot in the air as the smoke cleared and Kakashi stood there.

"You pass." He finished simply, my jaw dropped.

"Pass……what?" I asked in a squeak Then, as if the surprises would never end, Tsunade appeared, a grin on her face.

"Your Chuunin exam of course." Tsunade laughed as my jaw hit the ground again.

"WHAT!!!!" I exclaimed, before I saw stars and met with the ground……

~Kakashi~

I chuckled as Artemis fainted. Tsunade sighed and brought a hand to her forehead.

"I can't believe we just let her pass." She murmured, rubbing her temples. I chuckled again and looked at Alyss' closest friend for a moment. Really though, all four of the girls were close to each other, Artemis seemed to have a special bond with each of the girls. If anyone were to ask how the four of them came to be such a motley crew of close friends who share each others' secrets, wishes, and friendship, one would simply have to say that Artemis brought them all together, and then Zeala continued to maintain that by looking after the other three.

"They're remarkable girls." Was my reply as Tsunade sighed again, then ordered me to pick Artemis up while she went to negotiate with Artemis' summoned tiger demons while I took Artemis back to Naruto's apartment.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

~Artemis~

~*Flashback*~

_I was starting year two at a new school. My Dad was in the army reserves then, so we moved a lot. I had walked into the school that morning, excited and dreading, my Minnie Mouse backpack on my shoulders. Don't get me wrong, yes, the bag is pink, yes, it is girly, but my mum got it for me, so I don't want to upset her by not using it._

_When I walked onto the tarmac playground, I saw different groups of people and could tell straight away which stereotypes they fit in with. The large group of girls wearing pink, pink, pink, would be the cheerleaders of their high school, and the popular people who were popular because their parents have a lot of money or because they're pretty. The group of boys that were talking about sports would be the high school football or soccer or basketball team. The kids at a picnic table discussing what they learned in maths would be the computer whizz geeks that the populars and sports fanatics would beat up every day for no reason. Yes, I've been reading teenager novels, have been able to since I started year one. I sighed, pushing a lock of my side fringe out of my eyes before continuing across the tarmac……_

_I had been going to this school for a week now, and when I stepped onto the tarmac every lunchtime, some bullies would always seem to be waiting to circle around me and pick on me._

"_Hey looky what we have here boys," One of the third graders sneered as they circled around me while I clutched my lunchbox tightly._

"_It's the army brat who got no fwiends." He finished in a baby voice, because he knew that got me crying. Bring on the water works if you please. Silent tears started to roll down my cheeks as the boy sneered in triumph, then the circle of older boys started pushing and shoving me around and around, trying to get me to retaliate. I was smarter than that though._

"_Hey! Bumface!" I heard suddenly. I sniffed as I looked up to see a girl I knew of that was in third grade, Zeala Isolde, I was told that was her name. The group of boys turned to face her, and she looked like she could crack up laughing._

"_Zeala, you've come out of your shell." The ringleader commented with a smirk. I sniffled and tried to wipe away my tears. _

"_What of it, James? You not afraid of me anymore? Not scared I'm going to impale you?" She asked, sounding like she meant every word of what she had said. I gasped quietly. Zeala, was really brave, sticking up for a second grader she barely even knew. _

"_You wouldn't dare, not after getting suspended for it. Miss goody goody two shoes wouldn't dare get another black mark against her name." The ringleader replied, half mocking, half fearful._

"_Leave the poor girl alone, pick on someone your own size." She said coldly, "Or did they all beat _you_?'"She asked in the same frosty tone._

"_Shut up, Zeala." The boy scowled, then nodded to his friends and they walked away. Zeala turned her gaze to me then, which had softened._

"_Are you alright? Did they hit you or just assault you with words like they seem to be so good at." She asked me as she walked over to me. I didn't answer, just looked up at her, admiration in my eyes. This was the first time that someone had ever stuck up for me._

_She crouched down to my height then._

"_You're new here aren't you?" She asked, her voice a murmur. I just nodded in reply and looked up at her, a thankful smile on my face._

_After that, Zeala looked after me at the school, I'd hang out with her every break, since she was a year older than me in third grade. And my Dad quit the Army reserves at the end of that year, so now I had a permanent home….._

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~_

_A week later, another new girl arrived. She was put into my class and was put next to me. She blushed as the teacher gently pushed her into the classroom and to the front of the class._

"_Class, this is Alyss Mizuko. Everyone please make her feel welcome." The teacher explained with a warm smile. Alyss gave a shy wave and a tiny smile to the class._

"_Now Alyss, you'll be sitting next to Artemis over there." The teacher pointed at me and I waved and gave the new girl a kind smile. She shyly took a seat next to me and I turned to her and stuck out my hand._

"_Hi there, I'm Artemis, nice to meet ya." Alyss shyly took my hand and smiled at me in return._

"_I'm Alyss." She murmured. I nodded._

"_Hey, would you like to sit with us at lunch?" I asked her. She nodded, humming in agreement._

_Lunch came around soon enough, and as we walked out, James and his motley crew were waiting to "greet" Alyss on the tarmac._

"_Well, well, what have we got here boys? Another girl we can punch around." He smirked and Alyss cowered, but I stood in front of her, my arms spread wide._

"_Don't you dare touch her James, remember what Zeala did to you the last time you tried to hurt me? That can happen again." James sneered at my confident reply._

"_Oh, what makes you so sure?" He smirked cockily._

'"_Because she's right behind you cracking her knuckles with her I'm-gonna-kill-you look on." I replied smugly. James' smirk faltered. I started laughing when he and his crew promptly left the scene. Zeala scoffed and walked over to us._

"_There must be another new kid if James was involved." She stated in a knowing tone. I put my hands on my hips and met Zeala's gaze._

"_Gee, how'd ya guess?" I asked sarcastically. I was fast becoming known for my sarcasm. Then I looked behind me to see that Alyss was hiding behind one of the building walls. I smiled apologetically and walked over to her, holding a hand out for her._

"_Sorry about that, but you just met the current school bullies, I'm afraid. But don't worry, if you stick with us, they won't hurt you." I smiled encouragingly this time as I coaxed Alyss out. She did come out after a moment of hesitation, however. I smiled as I took her hand and lead her over to Zeala._

"_Z, this is the new girl, Alyss Mizuko." I said happily, looking back at Alyss with my now trademark grin. Alyss hid behind me a little, and I giggled._

"_Don't worry Alyss, Zeala won't hurt you, she doesn't have anything against you at all, she actually wants to help protect you from those mean bullies." Alyss slowly came out from behind my back and I turned to face her._

"_That wasn't hard at all was it? Now," I turned and stepped out of the way and brought Alyss over to Zeala._

"_Alyss, this is Zeala Isolde, Zeala, this is Alyss Mizuko." I said happily, formally introducing them. Zeala smiled kindly at Alyss and held out her hand._

"_It's nice to meet you, Alyss." Zeala smiled, then pouted as a lock of her hair fell into her face. She pushed her hair back, then pulled it back into a ponytail with one of the array of hair ties around her wrists. Alyss smiled, then giggled._

"_I'm Alyss, and it's nice to meet the both of you." I smiled, glad that we had a new friend, someone else to talk to._

_Slowly, Alyss came out of her shell, but stayed close to both myself and Zeala. We always made sure we were next to each other in class, then, when breaks rolled around, we'd always hang out with Zeala. We stayed at each other's houses almost every weekend we could and, as the year slowly passed, we gradually started doing more and more things with each other, including going to movies and just hanging out on weekends. The three of us became as close as any friends can get._

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~_

_I was walking across the tarmac in the mornings, like I usually did, only I had recently been reading the newspapers. The headliner being that a whole family except for one girl, two years younger than myself and Alyss, three years younger than Zeala. Poor girl got labelled as cursed because her family was slaughtered and she was the only survivor. She was coming o this school as well, starting in third grade, because she went to a different school for the first two years. Kids of all ages were whispering about the newest new kid, who was cursed because her family was needlessly slaughtered. It really burned me up that she had only just entered the school gates, like I had minutes ago, and people were already talking about her like she was a fatal case of meningitis or Tuberculosis._

_As I was mentally cursing every idiotically rude kid in this school, that poor girl passed me by. I turned and watched as her dark brown head disappeared into the third graders classroom, and sighed. Poor girl was gonna be outcast in that class, I just knew it._

……_.._

_A week passed, and people were still talking about the 'cursed girl' who should leave the school before she dooms us all. I scoffed at every one of those rumours, and snapped at anyone who dared bring it up in front of me. Zeala, Alyss and I were headed to our usual spot for lunch, which happened to be an on campus lake. As we walked and chatted, Alyss suddenly pointed over to a spot near the lake shore._

"_Isn't that the poor new girl?" She asked. I looked to where Alyss was pointing to see that it was indeed the new girl._

"_I guess it is." I murmured, walking over to her, with Zeala and Alyss behind me._

"_Hey, you're that freaky girl in third grade, right?" I asked curiously as I looked down at her where she sat. I gave her a warm smile, to show her that we weren't here to call her cursed._

_The girl crossed her arms, closing her eyes as well. She looked out over the lake with her head held high._

"_Who are __**you**__ to ask __**me**__ who __**I**__ am? I don't __**need**__ you, I don't __**need**__ to know you, so why don't you just back off, okay?" She snapped. I grinned. How _**cute**_ was this kid? I wouldn't say that out loud though, might offend her._

"_AW! SHE'S SO ADORABLY SO NOT CUTE! How about you hang out with us, people won't dare write you up ever again if they see you hanging out with us fifth graders plus sixth grader, 'kay?" A slow smile crept its way along her lips. Then she nodded, before leaping and tackle hugging me to the ground, all four of us laughing….._

_That's how I met my closest friends in the world. I know a lot of people, but I'm not social. I have a few other friends, but I don't trust them as much as Alyss, Viva and Zeala. The four of us are as close as anything. We argue, sure, but we always get over whatever it was we argued about, like whether the saying was 'home again, home again, jiggety jog' or 'home again, home again, bibbity bop'(Alyss and I both broke down into laughter halfway through the argument when I said 'We have the most random arguments, don't we?'). Over the years, we've become inseparable, and, in a way, we still are today._

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~_

I woke up on a, you guessed it folks, a hospital bed. Ah, the joys of life. Note the sarcasm. I groaned as the bright lights registered to my poor defenceless eyes.

"Curse whoever said hospitals should be white." I croaked, causing someone to gasp.

"ARTEMIS!!! YOU'RE STILL ALIVE!!!!" Then I felt a small, hyperactive body glomp me, causing me to groan.

"Who gave Viva coffee?" I asked as she jumped off of me.

"No one." Viva answered. I rolled my eyes

"Right~…..and you expect me to believe that Viv?" Viva mock glared, then raised her hands in defence.

"Hey, hey, hey! It was the weakest kind of Iced Coffee money can buy, okay!" I grinned. I win.

"Weak iced coffee or not Viv, it still has a mother load of caffeine in it, which is what usually makes people high." Viva growled and pouted in defeat. I grinned, then yawned, my eyes sliding shut slowly.

"Sleeeeeeepy, sleepy, sleepy." I murmured, too tired to continue keeping my eyes open for much longer. I heard several people in the room laugh a little, before Alyss and Kakashi ushered all of them out, or so I thought, until I registered distantly the familiar presence and chakra signature of Sasuke was still in the room. Soon after realising this, I felt the bed sink a little to my left, followed by a gentle, slightly calloused hand brush some of my hair back out of my face, rubbing my cheek softly. I smiled tiredly, cracking my eyes open a little bit.

"You know I'm still awake, right Sasuke?" He smirked as he ran his finger tips down my cheek then over my lips, which had me blinking curiously.

"Of course I knew, I've been trained for years to sense things like the difference in breathing when awake and asleep, as well as pulse, but I'm not daring enough to attempt to feel for an enemy's pulse." I grinned, chuckling dryly, before coughing a little. Sasuke helped me sit up a little, offering me a glass of water, which I gladly accepted. I took slow sips, so as not to make myself feel nauseous, before handing him the glass again and falling back onto the hospital bed.

My eyes slid to half mast for a moment, until my vision was filled with a pair of black irises, belonging of course, to one Sasuke Uchiha.

"You know, Art, technically, you've been released from the hospital since you only blacked out." I groaned. I didn't want to move, hospital beds are always surprisingly comfy.

"Don't wanna get up." I whined like the childish person I am. I regretted that when Sasuke suddenly smirked. I gulped in slight anticipation. Unfortunately for me, the next thing I know, I'm being slung over a broad shoulder by a muscular arm. I growled and thumped Sasuke's back with my fists.

"Put me down you brute! I can walk!" I heard Sasuke chuckle before e gently set me down, and I vaguely noticed that his hands were still around my waist, but, at the present moment, I was too busy _trying_ to be pissed off with him.

I say _trying_, because, well, let's just say that if you're me, it's very hard to glare at a _smiling_ Sasuke. As in, genuine smiling Sasuke. As in, never seen in the anime series in my world smiling Sasuke. I blinked sluggishly and blushed slightly as he smiled down at me.

"So, are you going to go home, or do I have to pick you up again?" I mock glared at him and gently broke out of his hold and brushed past him, my tail slightly brushing his arm as I walked out of the hospital room, with him following behind me.

As we walked, I lost myself in thought again. Everything seemed to be happening so fast, to all of us. And I was also deeply worried about my friends' wellbeing, Viva's in particular. I could read my friends like a book for some reason, and, to me, it seemed as if Viva was slowly losing herself, like I had heard happened to other Jinchuuriki vessels who denied having another entity living within them. I wasn't like Zeala with her premonitions, but I had a sickening gut feeling that Viva would slowly become insane. When, I didn't know, the how would be because of her demon, Evaan, who seemed to easily be taking control of Viva's physical body whenever it pleased her – I had heard about the bird eating episode via Kakashi – and, for some reason, it looked as if Evaan could also control what Viva did on the rare occasion.

In short, I was terrified about what could and maybe even will happen to Viva in the future. I sighed in sadness, slowing to a halt in the middle of the bustling street Sasuke and I were walking along. I felt Sasuke walk up beside me and turn to face me. I sighed shakily.

"Sasuke, I'm worried, terrified even. It may not be a strong feeling, nor a premonition like Zeala's, but I'm absolutely terrified of what will happen to my friends and I in the future, Viva especially. I feel like Viva's losing herself. She's not the Viva I knew before we arrived here." I let out a shaky sigh, running my fingers through my hair, and brushing over the tigers ears poking up from my shock of black hair.

What should I do? I'm lost, Sasuke. Lost, and terrified." I murmured, turning to face him as tears filled my eyes. I choked back a sob, feeling a pair of strong arms wrap around my body. Sasuke rubbed my back soothingly as I cried silently, trying hard not to sob uncontrollably.

After I had finally calmed down, I smiled up at Sasuke only to wince as an annoying voice suddenly filled our ears.

"Oh my God, Sasuke, is that you? I haven't seen you in _ages_!" I winced repeatedly, turning around to face aforeheard squealer, my eye twitching as I noticed she had a head of purple hair, and wore the Konoha forehead protector. She stopped in front of us, smiling fakely at me, and smiling lustfully at Sasuke. I twitched visibly. Who in all Hell is this girl?

I turned my head with a confused hum as Zeala silently appeared beside me. I smiled happily.

"Hey Z, what's up?" I asked, as Sasuke turned towards her also, ignoring the purple haired girl. Zeala smirked down at me.

"Pretty good. You pass your surprise exam?" I nodded.

"Lemme guess, you were ambushed while 'babysitting' one of the civilian children?" Z nodded.

I shook my head, smiling.

"Honestly, Tsunade needs to be more original than tha-AT!" I squealed as I was suddenly glomped from behind, causing me to land on the dirt road. I growled, pushing Viva off of me. Viva grinned sheepishly.

"Viva, you better start running because I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!!!!!" Viva squeaked and hid behind Zeala, who was currently laughing along with Sasuke. I huffed moodily, brushing the dirt off of my clothing. Damn, it was stinking hot today. Suddenly, I saw Alyss and Kakashi walking towards us. I grinned and ran the short distance to them, glomping Alyss happily. Alyss squeaked in surprise, laughing as I jumped off of her, grinning in that way of mine.

"You passed didn't you?" I asked, grinning from ear-to-ear as Alyss nodded. I squealed happily and hugged Alyss again.

"Yay! We're all gonna be Chuunin together!" I started doing a little happy dance until our moment was ended by the purple haired girl who was still in the vicinity….


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

~Artemis~

~*Flashback*~

_I was starting year two at a new school. My Dad was in the army reserves then, so we moved a lot. I had walked into the school that morning, excited and dreading, my Minnie Mouse backpack on my shoulders. Don't get me wrong, yes, the bag is pink, yes, it is girly, but my mum got it for me, so I don't want to upset her by not using it._

_When I walked onto the tarmac playground, I saw different groups of people and could tell straight away which stereotypes they fit in with. The large group of girls wearing pink, pink, pink, would be the cheerleaders of their high school, and the popular people who were popular because their parents have a lot of money or because they're pretty. The group of boys that were talking about sports would be the high school football or soccer or basketball team. The kids at a picnic table discussing what they learned in maths would be the computer whizz geeks that the populars and sports fanatics would beat up every day for no reason. Yes, I've been reading teenager novels, have been able to since I started year one. I sighed, pushing a lock of my side fringe out of my eyes before continuing across the tarmac……_

_I had been going to this school for a week now, and when I stepped onto the tarmac every lunchtime, some bullies would always seem to be waiting to circle around me and pick on me._

"_Hey looky what we have here boys," One of the third graders sneered as they circled around me while I clutched my lunchbox tightly._

"_It's the army brat who got no fwiends." He finished in a baby voice, because he knew that got me crying. Bring on the water works if you please. Silent tears started to roll down my cheeks as the boy sneered in triumph, then the circle of older boys started pushing and shoving me around and around, trying to get me to retaliate. I was smarter than that though._

"_Hey! Bumface!" I heard suddenly. I sniffed as I looked up to see a girl I knew of that was in third grade, Zeala Isolde, I was told that was her name. The group of boys turned to face her, and she looked like she could crack up laughing._

"_Zeala, you've come out of your shell." The ringleader commented with a smirk. I sniffled and tried to wipe away my tears. _

"_What of it, James? You not afraid of me anymore? Not scared I'm going to impale you?" She asked, sounding like she meant every word of what she had said. I gasped quietly. Zeala, was really brave, sticking up for a second grader she barely even knew. _

"_You wouldn't dare, not after getting suspended for it. Miss goody goody two shoes wouldn't dare get another black mark against her name." The ringleader replied, half mocking, half fearful._

"_Leave the poor girl alone, pick on someone your own size." She said coldly, "Or did they all beat _you_?'"She asked in the same frosty tone._

"_Shut up, Zeala." The boy scowled, then nodded to his friends and they walked away. Zeala turned her gaze to me then, which had softened._

"_Are you alright? Did they hit you or just assault you with words like they seem to be so good at." She asked me as she walked over to me. I didn't answer, just looked up at her, admiration in my eyes. This was the first time that someone had ever stuck up for me._

_She crouched down to my height then._

"_You're new here aren't you?" She asked, her voice a murmur. I just nodded in reply and looked up at her, a thankful smile on my face._

_After that, Zeala looked after me at the school, I'd hang out with her every break, since she was a year older than me in third grade. And my Dad quit the Army reserves at the end of that year, so now I had a permanent home….._

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~_

_A week later, another new girl arrived. She was put into my class and was put next to me. She blushed as the teacher gently pushed her into the classroom and to the front of the class._

"_Class, this is Alyss Mizuko. Everyone please make her feel welcome." The teacher explained with a warm smile. Alyss gave a shy wave and a tiny smile to the class._

"_Now Alyss, you'll be sitting next to Artemis over there." The teacher pointed at me and I waved and gave the new girl a kind smile. She shyly took a seat next to me and I turned to her and stuck out my hand._

"_Hi there, I'm Artemis, nice to meet ya." Alyss shyly took my hand and smiled at me in return._

"_I'm Alyss." She murmured. I nodded._

"_Hey, would you like to sit with us at lunch?" I asked her. She nodded, humming in agreement._

_Lunch came around soon enough, and as we walked out, James and his motley crew were waiting to "greet" Alyss on the tarmac._

"_Well, well, what have we got here boys? Another girl we can punch around." He smirked and Alyss cowered, but I stood in front of her, my arms spread wide._

"_Don't you dare touch her James, remember what Zeala did to you the last time you tried to hurt me? That can happen again." James sneered at my confident reply._

"_Oh, what makes you so sure?" He smirked cockily._

'"_Because she's right behind you cracking her knuckles with her I'm-gonna-kill-you look on." I replied smugly. James' smirk faltered. I started laughing when he and his crew promptly left the scene. Zeala scoffed and walked over to us._

"_There must be another new kid if James was involved." She stated in a knowing tone. I put my hands on my hips and met Zeala's gaze._

"_Gee, how'd ya guess?" I asked sarcastically. I was fast becoming known for my sarcasm. Then I looked behind me to see that Alyss was hiding behind one of the building walls. I smiled apologetically and walked over to her, holding a hand out for her._

"_Sorry about that, but you just met the current school bullies, I'm afraid. But don't worry, if you stick with us, they won't hurt you." I smiled encouragingly this time as I coaxed Alyss out. She did come out after a moment of hesitation, however. I smiled as I took her hand and lead her over to Zeala._

"_Z, this is the new girl, Alyss Mizuko." I said happily, looking back at Alyss with my now trademark grin. Alyss hid behind me a little, and I giggled._

"_Don't worry Alyss, Zeala won't hurt you, she doesn't have anything against you at all, she actually wants to help protect you from those mean bullies." Alyss slowly came out from behind my back and I turned to face her._

"_That wasn't hard at all was it? Now," I turned and stepped out of the way and brought Alyss over to Zeala._

"_Alyss, this is Zeala Isolde, Zeala, this is Alyss Mizuko." I said happily, formally introducing them. Zeala smiled kindly at Alyss and held out her hand._

"_It's nice to meet you, Alyss." Zeala smiled, then pouted as a lock of her hair fell into her face. She pushed her hair back, then pulled it back into a ponytail with one of the array of hair ties around her wrists. Alyss smiled, then giggled._

"_I'm Alyss, and it's nice to meet the both of you." I smiled, glad that we had a new friend, someone else to talk to._

_Slowly, Alyss came out of her shell, but stayed close to both myself and Zeala. We always made sure we were next to each other in class, then, when breaks rolled around, we'd always hang out with Zeala. We stayed at each other's houses almost every weekend we could and, as the year slowly passed, we gradually started doing more and more things with each other, including going to movies and just hanging out on weekends. The three of us became as close as any friends can get._

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~_

_I was walking across the tarmac in the mornings, like I usually did, only I had recently been reading the newspapers. The headliner being that a whole family except for one girl, two years younger than myself and Alyss, three years younger than Zeala. Poor girl got labelled as cursed because her family was slaughtered and she was the only survivor. She was coming o this school as well, starting in third grade, because she went to a different school for the first two years. Kids of all ages were whispering about the newest new kid, who was cursed because her family was needlessly slaughtered. It really burned me up that she had only just entered the school gates, like I had minutes ago, and people were already talking about her like she was a fatal case of meningitis or Tuberculosis._

_As I was mentally cursing every idiotically rude kid in this school, that poor girl passed me by. I turned and watched as her dark brown head disappeared into the third graders classroom, and sighed. Poor girl was gonna be outcast in that class, I just knew it._

……_.._

_A week passed, and people were still talking about the 'cursed girl' who should leave the school before she dooms us all. I scoffed at every one of those rumours, and snapped at anyone who dared bring it up in front of me. Zeala, Alyss and I were headed to our usual spot for lunch, which happened to be an on campus lake. As we walked and chatted, Alyss suddenly pointed over to a spot near the lake shore._

"_Isn't that the poor new girl?" She asked. I looked to where Alyss was pointing to see that it was indeed the new girl._

"_I guess it is." I murmured, walking over to her, with Zeala and Alyss behind me._

"_Hey, you're that freaky girl in third grade, right?" I asked curiously as I looked down at her where she sat. I gave her a warm smile, to show her that we weren't here to call her cursed._

_The girl crossed her arms, closing her eyes as well. She looked out over the lake with her head held high._

"_Who are __**you**__ to ask __**me**__ who __**I**__ am? I don't __**need**__ you, I don't __**need**__ to know you, so why don't you just back off, okay?" She snapped. I grinned. How _**cute**_ was this kid? I wouldn't say that out loud though, might offend her._

"_AW! SHE'S SO ADORABLY SO NOT CUTE! How about you hang out with us, people won't dare write you up ever again if they see you hanging out with us fifth graders plus sixth grader, 'kay?" A slow smile crept its way along her lips. Then she nodded, before leaping and tackle hugging me to the ground, all four of us laughing….._

_That's how I met my closest friends in the world. I know a lot of people, but I'm not social. I have a few other friends, but I don't trust them as much as Alyss, Viva and Zeala. The four of us are as close as anything. We argue, sure, but we always get over whatever it was we argued about, like whether the saying was 'home again, home again, jiggety jog' or 'home again, home again, bibbity bop'(Alyss and I both broke down into laughter halfway through the argument when I said 'We have the most random arguments, don't we?'). Over the years, we've become inseparable, and, in a way, we still are today._

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~_

I woke up on a, you guessed it folks, a hospital bed. Ah, the joys of life. Note the sarcasm. I groaned as the bright lights registered to my poor defenceless eyes.

"Curse whoever said hospitals should be white." I croaked, causing someone to gasp.

"ARTEMIS!!! YOU'RE STILL ALIVE!!!!" Then I felt a small, hyperactive body glomp me, causing me to groan.

"Who gave Viva coffee?" I asked as she jumped off of me.

"No one." Viva answered. I rolled my eyes

"Right~…..and you expect me to believe that Viv?" Viva mock glared, then raised her hands in defence.

"Hey, hey, hey! It was the weakest kind of Iced Coffee money can buy, okay!" I grinned. I win.

"Weak iced coffee or not Viv, it still has a mother load of caffeine in it, which is what usually makes people high." Viva growled and pouted in defeat. I grinned, then yawned, my eyes sliding shut slowly.

"Sleeeeeeepy, sleepy, sleepy." I murmured, too tired to continue keeping my eyes open for much longer. I heard several people in the room laugh a little, before Alyss and Kakashi ushered all of them out, or so I thought, until I registered distantly the familiar presence and chakra signature of Sasuke was still in the room. Soon after realising this, I felt the bed sink a little to my left, followed by a gentle, slightly calloused hand brush some of my hair back out of my face, rubbing my cheek softly. I smiled tiredly, cracking my eyes open a little bit.

"You know I'm still awake, right Sasuke?" He smirked as he ran his finger tips down my cheek then over my lips, which had me blinking curiously.

"Of course I knew, I've been trained for years to sense things like the difference in breathing when awake and asleep, as well as pulse, but I'm not daring enough to attempt to feel for an enemy's pulse." I grinned, chuckling dryly, before coughing a little. Sasuke helped me sit up a little, offering me a glass of water, which I gladly accepted. I took slow sips, so as not to make myself feel nauseous, before handing him the glass again and falling back onto the hospital bed.

My eyes slid to half mast for a moment, until my vision was filled with a pair of black irises, belonging of course, to one Sasuke Uchiha.

"You know, Art, technically, you've been released from the hospital since you only blacked out." I groaned. I didn't want to move, hospital beds are always surprisingly comfy.

"Don't wanna get up." I whined like the childish person I am. I regretted that when Sasuke suddenly smirked. I gulped in slight anticipation. Unfortunately for me, the next thing I know, I'm being slung over a broad shoulder by a muscular arm. I growled and thumped Sasuke's back with my fists.

"Put me down you brute! I can walk!" I heard Sasuke chuckle before he gently set me down, and I vaguely noticed that his hands were still around my waist, but, at the present moment, I was too busy _trying_ to be pissed off with him.

I say _trying_, because, well, let's just say that if you're me, it's very hard to glare at a _smiling_ Sasuke. As in, genuine smiling Sasuke. As in, never seen in the anime series in my world smiling Sasuke. I blinked sluggishly and blushed slightly as he smiled down at me.

"So, are you going to go home, or do I have to pick you up again?" I mock glared at him and gently broke out of his hold and brushed past him, my tail slightly brushing his arm as I walked out of the hospital room, with him following behind me.

As we walked, I lost myself in thought again. Everything seemed to be happening so fast, to all of us. And I was also deeply worried about my friends' wellbeing, Viva's in particular. I could read my friends like a book for some reason, and, to me, it seemed as if Viva was slowly losing herself, like I had heard happened to other Jinchuuriki vessels who denied having another entity living within them. I wasn't like Zeala with her premonitions, but I had a sickening gut feeling that Viva would slowly become insane. When, I didn't know, the how would be because of her demon, Evaan, who seemed to easily be taking control of Viva's physical body whenever it pleased her – I had heard about the bird eating episode via Kakashi – and, for some reason, it looked as if Evaan could also control what Viva did on the rare occasion.

In short, I was terrified about what could and maybe even will happen to Viva in the future. I sighed in sadness, slowing to a halt in the middle of the bustling street Sasuke and I were walking along. I felt Sasuke walk up beside me and turn to face me. I sighed shakily.

"Sasuke, I'm worried, terrified even. It may not be a strong feeling, nor a premonition like Zeala's, but I'm absolutely terrified of what will happen to my friends and I in the future, Viva especially. I feel like Viva's losing herself. She's not the Viva I knew before we arrived here." I let out a shaky sigh, running my fingers through my hair, and brushing over the tigers ears poking up from my shock of black hair.

What should I do? I'm lost, Sasuke. Lost, and terrified." I murmured, turning to face him as tears filled my eyes. I choked back a sob, feeling a pair of strong arms wrap around my body. Sasuke rubbed my back soothingly as I cried silently, trying hard not to sob uncontrollably.

After I had finally calmed down, I smiled up at Sasuke only to wince as an annoying voice suddenly filled our ears.

"Oh my God, Sasuke, is that you? I haven't seen you in _ages_!" I winced repeatedly, turning around to face aforeheard squealer, my eye twitching as I noticed she had a head of purple hair, and wore the Konoha forehead protector. She stopped in front of us, smiling fakely at me, and smiling lustfully at Sasuke. I twitched visibly. Who in all Hell is this girl?

I turned my head with a confused hum as Zeala silently appeared beside me. I smiled happily.

"Hey Z, what's up?" I asked, as Sasuke turned towards her also, ignoring the purple haired girl. Zeala smirked down at me.

"Pretty good. You pass your surprise exam?" I nodded.

"Lemme guess, you were ambushed while 'babysitting' one of the civilian children?" Z nodded.

I shook my head, smiling.

"Honestly, Tsunade needs to be more original than tha-AT!" I squealed as I was suddenly glomped from behind, causing me to land on the dirt road. I growled, pushing Viva off of me. Viva grinned sheepishly.

"Viva, you better start running because I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!!!!!" Viva squeaked and hid behind Zeala, who was currently laughing along with Sasuke. I huffed moodily, brushing the dirt off of my clothing. Damn, it was stinking hot today. Suddenly, I saw Alyss and Kakashi walking towards us. I grinned and ran the short distance to them, glomping Alyss happily. Alyss squeaked in surprise, laughing as I jumped off of her, grinning in that way of mine.

"You passed didn't you?" I asked, grinning from ear-to-ear as Alyss nodded. I squealed happily and hugged Alyss again.

"Yay! We're all gonna be Chuunin together!" I started doing a little happy dance until our moment was ended by the purple haired girl who was still in the vicinity….


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

_**~A.N.- Hello All, I just thought that I would apologise for the shortness of this chapter. I'm currently going through the process of adding things that I left out in the chapters between this one and the one I'm writing presently, so I hope posting three or so chapters will be a present enough for all my lovely readers. I would like to thank the kind person/s who reviewed my story, I would also like to thank one of them for giving me constructive criticism and reminding me of a few details. As per Artemis' hatred towards Sakura, it **_**does**_** die down over the course of the years that the story takes place throughout, only because Sakura becomes increasingly less amounts of annoying(Sorry, but that is just my opinion) But, anyway, onto the story!**_

_**Disclaimer: I DON'T own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does!**_

~Artemis~

"What are you doing with those three? Why are they hanging out with _you_?" I glared at the purple haired girl as she looked at Alyss with contempt. I growled in annoyance and stepped forward in front of the slightly taller Alyss.

"And who exactly are _you_ to ask my closest friend Alyss why she's hanging out with us when all three of us have known her since long before we arrived here?" Purple haired girl looked taken aback.

"What? But she doesn't have ears and a tail like you do!" I growled and stepped forward, cracking my knuckles.

"Who gives a flying fudge woman! Alyss has been my closest friend along with Zeala and Viva since I was a little kid! No questions asked!" The fur on my tail seemed to suddenly stand on end, as well as the fur on my ears. Man, nobody pissed me off and walked away unscathed, especially if they made rude remarks about one of my closest friends.

"Just who in all Hell do you think you are in that you can tell Alyss or myself who we can and can't be friends with!? I knew I didn't like you when I laid eyes on you just minutes ago, you're worse than bloody Sakura freaking Haruno! Mind you she walked away from me with a black eye!" I had been advancing on the now frightened purple haired girl during my rant before Alyss appeared in front of me, placing her hands on my shoulders.

"Artemis Calypso Ryans, calm down this instant!" Alyss commanded in her gentle voice. I sighed, breathing deeply as the fur on my ears and tail smoothed out again. My friends all sighed in relief.

"Art, did you seriously want a repeat of what happened with Sakura, I think she almost peed herself!" Viva exclaimed, pointing to the frozen purple haired girl. I grinned, before turning to scowl at purple haired girl.

"What's your name?" I growled the question as she came back to herself. She jumped in fright and took a few steps back.

"S-Shori." She murmured in fright. I glared at her.

"Well, Shori, you've officially replaced Sakura Haruno as the number one person on my list of people I despise. If I _ever_ hear you so much as mutter a _word_ about my friends again, I swear to God, you'll be wishing you never uttered those words in your short, pathetic life. _Ever_." With that, I turned around and walked off, Sasuke quickly following after me.

After a while of walking in a tense silence, Sasuke and I came to a halt outside Naruto's apartment building. I sighed, running my fingers through my tousled hair in slight frustration.

"I cannot _believe_ that girl! Ugh!" I exclaimed, punching the nearest wall in contempt. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"What did the wall ever do to you?" He asked jokingly. That got me to smile. I sighed and rubbed my knuckles a little as I looked down at my hands.

"Hey, Sasuke," Sasuke looked up at me with a questioning look, which quickly turned to one of shock as I pecked his cheek. Both of us were red by this time.

"Thanks." I murmured before running inside and disappearing up the stairs to Naruto's apartment floor. By the time I had closed the door behind me, my blush had faded a little, but it was still there. I can't believe I just did that. I kissed Sasuke. Okay, on the cheek but STILL!!!! I kissed Sasuke Freaking Uchiha! My blush darkened at the thought.


End file.
